Richard Alston divides opinion. Some find his fluency and profusion reward enough, seeing in each of his finely crafted contemporary creations a perfect response to his musical choices.

Others, while acknowledging his choreographic ingenuity and wonderful dancers, find his work emotionally monotonous, and his movement language one that ducks the metaphysically difficult questions. A gorgeous surface engagement, if you will, but no more.

Advocates and detractors alike will cite this mixed bill as proof of their position. Overdrive is a rush of fleet-footed steps, arcing torsos and swooping arms. The set is clear and the lighting clean, and the dancers make hay with Terry Riley’s deceptively repetitious score. So far, so accomplished. But Riley is also posing questions about musical sameness and change, perhaps their unlikely humour, and even the idea of the diminishing returns of variety. Yet to this Alston’s choreography provides few answers, which you’d expect from what’s variously known as pure, plotless and abstract dance.

A stronger narrative theme, if not quite a plot, can be seen in Alston’s Movements From Petrushka. Made in 1994, this revival examines the poignant similarity between the fairytale puppet Petrushka and the mental illness of the dancer Nijinsky, who created the Petroushka ballet in 1911. Alston has a Petrushka/Nijinsky figure and a corps of dancers whose pleasures he cannot share. If you don’t read the programme, you may not get this, nor the tension between the group’s happiness and Petrushka’s isolation which is not always clear. As ever, the dancers were excellent while pianist Jason Ridgway, perched centre stage with the dancers, was a joy.

One-time Alston dancer Martin Lawrance completed the programme with To Dance And Skylark, a new-ish piece set to Bach. Lawrance is every inch Alston’s pupil, sharing many of his teacher’s strengths and flaws.

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