Kiwis inspire with Red-hot ballet

This was very clear on Wednesday evening when the touring ballet performed Red at Sydney Theatre, Walsh Bay.

Red was an inspired program of three contemporary dance works.

If the ballet company feels it needs to travel and perform offshore to keep its dancers and staff challenged, it has no need to fear. Red was a superb program of international standard.

The first of three dances was Equilibrium, choreographed by New Zealander Cameron McMillan and set to the superb Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by US composer Philip Glass.

Equilibrium was a show of muscle and strength, unapologetic in its expression of freedom and daring.

Eight dancers showed off their significant athletic ability in this work, and their toned physiques were etched in light and shadow by spotlights off stage left and right.

The group often in formation was fast moving. The dancers' forms shifted quickly from graceful to sharp and back again, always with a high energy level and a sense of restraint.

The second and my favourite work of the evening was the truly beautiful Abhisheka by New Zealand choreographer Adrian Burnett.

The piece pays homage to an ancient religious cleansing rite, and begins with the stunning image of a woman moving underneath a spotlit cascade of sand.

The music (by New Zealander John Psathas) contains Middle Eastern tones in keeping with the set's intense orange hues.

Lighting designer John Rayment is to be congratulated for his work in this piece it's stunning. His warm-toned lighting moves between soft, bright and fiery, and places the story perhaps in late-afternoon Morocco.

Very exotic.

As a result, Tracy Grant Lord's gauzy creme-coloured women's costumes are a welcome cooling element on stage. They also make the dancers look somehow vulnerable amid all this heat.

Burnett's choreography pays tribute to the work's spiritual nature as the dancers bow or lie in reverence, and there are repeated references to the feel of the cascading sand.

Burnett also surprises by punctuating the dancers' graceful movement with flexed hands or feet.

Last but not least was Plan to A by US choreographer Jorma Elo which worked beautifully set to a piece by 17th century German composer Heinrich Biber.

This is a cheeky, quirky work which never slows even as the curtain comes down. The seven dancers in bright red have twittery hands which give the work an organic feel. It's like looking at sea creatures and not knowing which one's about to explode.

The dancers trigger each other's light, clever and at times gymnastic movements.