Giant Steps

This season's Giant Steps consists of three works that range widely. Together, the three choreographers cover every corner of the emotional register - from unrestrained high spirits to the deepest seriousness. In the 26/27 season we repeat the success and present three very different works in the same evening. We begin with Justin Peck's lively In Creases. The ballet is danced to Philip Glass's hypnotic music, performed by two pianists on stage. Peck has said himself that with this work he wants to explore the idea of symmetry and geometry in movement - how the dancers can be individual bodies and at the same time part of a larger, architectural form. Next comes Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven, a heart-rending ballet by the American choreographer Ulysses Dove, who died in 1996. He himself gave it the subtitle "Odes to Love and Loss", and it is a tribute to the many people in his circle who lost their lives to AIDS. It is about the unbreakable bonds we form with one another in our fleeting time here on earth, before we meet at the gates of Heaven. The evening ends in the company of Pam Tanowitz, whose intelligent and unpredictable works make her one of the most exciting voices in the international dance world right now. In the playful Or Forevermore she blends classical and modern ballet and bends, in the most whimsical way, the rules of what ballet is and can be. Is she making fun of ballet, or does she want to show us that ballet can be fun too? Or Forevermore photo credit: Royal Ballet and Opera Arena Recommended from age 8

• Dirigent: Matthew Rowe