Scottish Ballet's celebration of its 40th birthday arrived in Edinburgh last week with a varied and versatile evening exemplifying creative director Ashley Page's rejuvenation of the company; that old cliché-ridden chestnut of tradition and experimentation.

The pieces are performed in chronological order, beginning in the '60s with George Balanchine's Rubies, followed by William Forsythe's 1998 piece Workwithinwork, and culminating in Krysztof Pastor's In Light and Shadow from 2000. Each piece exhibits a distinctly individual direction in an attempt to showcase the company's multifaceted personality; we are shown the results of several very different interpretations in their staging, from the strict routines employed in the creation of Rubies, to the more expressive methods that govern Workwithinawork.

Balanchine's opener is a sexy and exhilarating document of its time that makes the best of Stravinsky's maenad-inducing tonic of the beautiful and bizarre. The dancers flit between a genderless neutrality in movement and costume, to moments of an almost incandescent hyper-sexuality that quickens the beating of the heart. There are moments of actual laughter and the solos are impressive as Balanchine navigates the politics of '60s sexuality with a childlike glee. Perhaps it's the difficulty of following the magic and fluidity of Rubies, but Workwithinawork begins to seem remarkably dull by comparison. The dancers' solo performances are often nothing short of inspired, but the drone of Luciano Berio's 'Duetti for two violins' begins to conspire with the piece's deliberately faltering character to annoy rather than innovate.

The best is saved for last, with Pastor's joyous In Light and Shadow. It begins with a solemn and ruminative duet over the aria from Bach's 'Goldberg Variations', marked by a show of extreme technical discipline from the leads, before the stage explodes with colour, light and the flamboyant melodies of the same composer's 'Suite No. 3'. Pastor describes his intention of making it about, “something being formal, then breaking into a very free expression of movement and music,” and he is entirely successful. Playful lighting tricks and a simple but effective backdrop combine with the performance to produce a jubilant expression of human experimentation and a joyful reflection on ballet's evolving tradition and influence.

This final piece can be read as the realisation of Page's mission statement of a bold modernism grounded in classical theory and technique, as Scottish Ballet strides boldly into the new century with a confidence and vision that this show delights in confirming.