Incarnat

Each solo sequence in Incarnat is an incitation to empathy, relentlessly asking the onlooker to reach out. The shock tactics it uses in this endeavour make for difficult viewing at times, but its images create a devastatingly powerful piece of dance.

While the dancers of Lia Rodriquez Companhia take turns to make excruciating and beautiful pleas, their fellows look on – not in the wings, but onstage as unlistening, unfeeling others. The piece questions the role of both the bystander who watches suffering, and the spectator viewing a performance. Incarnat reminds us of our role in all this, exercising dance’s upfront power to reach its audience and potentially do away with the stage between.

Although the constant hammering away at the comfortable boundary between us and them is eventually numbing, the dancers move exquisitely and the choreography leaves you seared by a dozen incredible images. (Tom Tàbori)

Assembly Aurora Nova, 623 3030, until 27 Aug (not Tue), 9.30pm, £12–£13 (£9–£10).