Nycht-Hemeron

Despite Outside In’s good intentions – they help young performers gain experience – neither the bland choreography nor the mediocre dancers’ technique rescues Nycht-Hemeron from its difficult early morning slot. Putatively exploring the passage of a day, it is a series of characterless contemporary ballets that manages to neither provoke nor excite.

The structure of the show is pedestrian: the mildly diverting trios and solos are interspersed with laboured readings of classical poetry. The costumes and lighting do not elaborate on the theme, and it is difficult to know what time of day each piece is exploring. A dance performed to flashlights, picking out isolated limbs and whirling lights, bursts with sudden energy and experimentation, but the majority of the work is polite, tasteful and uncommunicative.

Rather than working with the dancers’ abilities, the choreography forces a mannered classicism on technique that cannot support it. Good intentions aside, this is disappointing.

C Chambers Street, 0845 260 1212, until 25 Aug, 10am, £6.50–£8.50 (£5.50–£7.50).