Let alone putting them on the same programme - and inserting between them a dance work to some harpsichord Scarlatti and a concept film accompanied by Errolyn Wallen MBE on voice and piano.

To be at home and at ease in setting dance to this range of music obviously calls for uninhibited eclectic taste but inherent in that is the vital ingredient of musicality.

So it comes as little surprise that the Swansea University-trained Nigerian Welshman, Henri Oguike, began his career in the dance company of a master of that versatility in Richard Alston.

But as well as setting out a challenge to the palate of his audience, does Oguike make it entertaining?

Most certainly, yes – and not only that, but hugely enjoyably so. Another delightfully young and full Brighton audience at the Corn Exchange soon let the dancers know that – and, at the end, Oguike when he rightly joined his dancers on stage.

And the element of challenge is not delivered at knifepoint. Oguike's work is immensely audience friendly. The language is lucid, direct, recognisable and quickly absorbed.

And the challenge one would expect to emerge as the toughest – Front Line, to Shostakovich's 9th Quartet – is arguably the most entertaining. It is the signature work of Oguike, and dates back seven years of the 10 his company are this season celebrating.

Darkly lit for even darker music by the artistically tortured and governmentally oppressed Soviet composer, the music comes live from the all-female Pavão String Quartet.

The players are placed on stage behind the dancers virtually in the formation of a firing squad.

It is a dance sextet. It is not a ballet. Feet are deliberately stamped. There is noise. This is about rage and confinement.

The dancers also flail, groan, gasp and slap, as well as pant. There is violence, beseeching, conflict, turmoil, anguish. Melodrama is carefully avoided. It is a high-impact, intense outlet of energy and torment. One is entertained because some of its language is so unexpected but fiercely communicative.

After this penetrating success, the evening moves from the satisfaction of this into fun, into musing, and then sheer unbuttoned relaxation. White Space (created in 2004) is the fun, with a torrent of Scarlatti's cracklingly exhilarating tunes, figures and rhythms, with Scott Ross' recording pounded out through the loudspeakers.

To a film-projected background on the theme of the title, the seven dancers are relating socially and casually, as male and female (respectively, two and seven) playfully, teasingly, accusingly, effervescently, fleetingly, fluidly, with much gestural movement of heads.

The Portuguese, Nuno Campos, shows his virtuosity of movement and there is plenty of cheek and posturing from the girls, several of whom are Far Eastern.

One memorable feature is a square spotlight on the floor into which each character, one by one, steps to perform.

Musing, harmlessly, is "Falling". It is a film conceived by Wallen and director Dan Farberoff featuring Oguike's slow-motion choreography of a couple, Campos and Laura Peña Nuñez. They are weightless in orbit around the earth.

NASA's 2006 Atlantis Shuttle mission spacewalk was done by astronaut Steve MacLean. His own spoken words after the experience of looking back to Earth are interleaved with verses from Wallen's song about us all being ultimately dust.

Shown on Channel 4 in the UK and ABC TV in Australia last year, it is, in this post-spacerace day and age, a bland, if truthful statement. But texturally and musically it made a pleasing effect.

Like Alston in recent years at Brighton's Dome, Oguike chooses to finish the evening on a bubbly high and Finale (2003) uses salsa rhythms to create what is a predictable winner.

Unlike the previous three works, there is no backdrop. It is energetic, celebratory dance as its most relaxed. A simple summing up of the kind of spontaneity most of us can express physically at moments of happiness when words are superfluous or downright redundant.

If it is studiously cutting edge stuff you crave, that's not Oguike's bag. His super programme brochure provides all you need in preparation and reassurance. His avoidance of complexity and obtuseness - and a refusal to push barriers too far - ensure his audience depart wishing there had been yet more of the same.


Click here to go back to dance.
Click here to go back to classical music news.
Click here to go back to leisure.
Where are you? Add your pin to the Herald's international readers' map by clicking here.
Email the Herald: letters@worthingherald.co.uk
Want to read this page in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Urdu or 48 other