This small Oklahoman dance company, making its first visit to the UK, has been going for 70 years. For the last three decades its artistic director has been the Italian Marcello Angelini, who clearly sets standards high for his very finessed set of dancers (which includes Edward Truelove from England and a Scot, James Lachlan Murray).
That’s demonstrated especially in the opening piece of this triple bill, Classical Symphony by Yuri Possokhov, a Ukrainian choreographer now resident at San Francisco Ballet. Set to Prokofiev, Possokhov’s neoclassical dance has a bit of flex to it, a cheeky rock of the hips or other off-piste details, but always prioritises grace. For lead couple Nao Ota and Jun Masuda, it’s tricky, technical choreography, which they pull off with an absolute ease. The steps come in a long continuous flurry, but everything is neatly articulated with breezy elegance.
