balletLORENT: La Nuit Intime

As dry ice clouds the bar, stage lights cast dim shadows over candlelit tables, podiums and rocking horses. The effect is almost filmic; disarming and intriguing. In dramatic style, Liv Lorent's balletLORENT return with a touring production of her eclectic and extravagant site specific evening La Nuit Intime. Lorent's method is driven by location, as well as by a commitment to her dancer's individual style. Rather than focus on technicality she places performers in situational, interactive contexts.

Tonight's piece is clearly an attempt to explore how dance can develop away from the studio space or proscenium arch. But as lights and conversation dim and the smoke clears it becomes quickly obvious that as an attempt to integrate modern dance and Friday night revelling, the piece is left wanting. This is a paying dance audience, and they want to see a dance show. With this in mind the piece suffers from a spotlight and an attentive crowd.

Long periods of sole dancers standing, swaying, shivering and swinging on imposing apparatus just aren't compelling enough over two and half hours. There were moments when narrative is suggested and developed though, which helps move the piece along. Commanding scenes of violent, stomping Flamenco-influenced duets had a powerful sexual energy which explored dance as a public, sometimes drunken exchange. Continuity was absent though and there were numerous scenes of dancers hugging themselves forlornly on rotating podiums, to endless, drippy singer-songwriter fodder. There's also a lot of weirdly placed, oddly paced breakdance.

Audience concentration wained, and the performers did little to keep it; nonchalantly high-fiving and chatting, they seemed unable to respond to their audience's mood. It would be wrong to squarely blame the dancers though, as there seems an inherent flaw within the piece – it asks for attention then shirks in a corner, only to reemerge totally overbearing. Several of the dancers outshone this, performing fiercely, and with palpable conviction. Phillipa White was enthralling to watch; vulnerable and powerful, particularly in balletic moments. John Kendall also impressed with a solid, adept performance. La Nuit Intime is a piece at odds with itself; baggy and unfocused, sometimes striking but mostly a slog. Potentially atmospheric as a barroom sideshow, pretty banal as main stage spectacle.