An exceptional evening, a double bill, featuring two leading figures from the contemporary dance scene, united by a shared commitment to structural rigour.

The programme opens with William Forsythe’s Undertainment, a ‘silent’ piece in which the precision of the choreography is permeated by the sound material of the stage – the dancers’ breathing, touching and footfall – with almost architectural rigour.

At the head of the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, heir to the Ballett Frankfurt, former Forsythe dancer Ioannis Mandafounis was eager to extend this revival with a new creation. He therefore invited Thomas Hauert, a Swiss choreographer based in Belgium, to imagine a piece in response to Forsythe’s. Playing with Sergei, Martha and the others takes on Sergei Rachmaninov’s monumental Piano Concerto No. 3 in Martha Argerich’s virtuoso 1982 interpretation. Faced with the score’s formidable technical complexity, Hauert favours playfulness, fluidity and collective intelligence.

A diptych full of contrasts that highlights the performers in their uniqueness and the obvious pleasure they take in dancing.