THE PLAYHOUSE *****

	Angela Towler in Five Rückert Songs by Peter Darrell

Unrequited love, disenchantment with life, the irretrievable loss, through death, of children - on paper Rambert's triple bill of dance works to Mahler song cycles seemed to ooze bleakness and melancholy. On-stage, however, this unstinting engagement with daily griefs proves invaluably moving: why not shed sudden tears when gripped by feelings of shared fears or experiences, triggered not just by the music but by choreography that - in each instance - encompassed gestures, body language, frozen movements, that rendered internal anguish evident, affecting?

Kim Brandstrup's Songs of a Wayfarer - a world première - had Thomasin Gulgec hunkering and rocking in sheer wretchedness as his beloved was swept up in the arms of another. Steven Scott's inspired wall of light-boxes glowed and brooded like a litmus of volatile emotions as Ana Lujan Sanchez swithered and dallied before dealing the final rejection that silhouettes Gulgec in loneliness.

Yolanda Sonnabend's redesign of Darrell's Five Ruckert Songs blazes surprisingly vibrant colour across backcloth and raffish costumes, though The Woman (Angela Towler) is subtler in floaty apricot-peach. She's also thrillingly alive to the nuances of the emotional journey in this work, pushing through hurt and disappointment to a calm that reassures us all.

Tudor's Dark Elegies, set in 1937 to Kindertotenlieder, never loses its edge, with its harrowed women in drab frocks and peasant kerchiefs suddenly driven on to pointes by waves of galvanic mourning or stalwart men, suddenly floored by grief, striving to reconnect the diminished community.

Events in North Ossetia inevitably came to mind, as Rambert's superbly dignified dancers shouldered unspeakable sorrows before linking together in resolute solidarity - this is work that aches with humanity that is timeless, yet immediate.

Sponsored by Standard Life.

Mary Brennan

WITH so many first-class components in place, failure was never realty on die agenda. The Rambert Dancers are incapable of performing anything other than a perfect step.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra could make a bum note sound polished - in the unlikely event they ever hit one. In short, the perfect combination. There was nothing rip-roaring or trail-blazing about the Mahler and Dance; none of the fireworks we witnessed at last year's Christopher Wheeldon/San Francisco Ballet show. But the sheer quality of music and movement made this performance one of the Festival's heavyweights. Baritone, Gerald Finley and mezzo soprano Jane Irwin both embraced Mahler's emotive lieder with aplomb - in fact the only potential wild card was the choreography.

Three very different works by three diverse choreographers each interpreting the emotionally driven text in their own distinct way. The show opened with a world première, Kim Brandstrup's Songs of a Wayfarer. Performed behind a transparent gauze, the work had a hazy, mournful feel. Dressed in shades of blue, and backed by four light boxes which moved from burnt orange to deep red, the company's dancers looked better than ever. Despite being a new work this was vintage Rambert - no gimmicks, no frippery, just exquisite dancing which breathed in time with every rise and fall Mahler's score had to offer. The dramatic partner work and dynamic lifts were the ideal showcase for Rambert's core strength; modern moves underpinned by an elegant, classic style.

Peter Darrell's Five Ruckert Songs followed. The Scottish Ballet founder's signature work offers a dichotomy to any company. The lead female - a woman reflecting on pleasures past - needs emotional maturity but a youthful physicality to drive the piece forward.

Aberdonian Angela Towler, one of Rambert's brightest stars, held the piece together beautifully. Although Darrell's work has not stood the test of time quite so successfully as Antony Tudor's Dark Eulogies, created in 1937, when Tudor was a fledgling choreographer at the newly-formed Ballet Rambert, this is a work of remarkable depth.

Set to Mahler's Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) the work has been described as Tudor's masterpiece, and with good reason.

Using wrenching arms and plaintive lifts, rather than the dancer's faces, to convey emotion, Tudor evokes a sense of hopeless tragedy which is as relevant now as it was during its creation 70 years ago.

KELLY APTER