In physical terms Akram Khan has once again created a work of fascinating precision and energy. Vertical Road was both compelling and absorbing and was a tribute to the eight extraordinarily talented performers on the stage. However, as a departure from his usual accessible style, Khan has opted for something more ambiguous.

The dancers were choreographed as a chorus, with their movement a collection of motifs with myriad cultural references like Butoh, Tai Chi, Maori Haka and Katak which, once fused together, serve to distance the performers from their own individual ethnicity.

They were lit predominantly from behind and above, which resulted in shadows for expressions. The lights were coloured with icy steels that drained the tone from their skin and they were dressed uniformly in an asexual neutral tone costume which disguised their gender. It was as if Khan’s contemplation of the greater things in life, evolution and survival, has left no room for the individual. This was serious choreography, aggressive, macho, driven by Nitin Sawhneys’ industrial score.

The show succeeded best when the performers fought each other either in animal competition with demonstrations of physical prowess on the battleground (albeit non-contact) or in an intimate prolonged embrace.

Unfortunately though, with any meaning almost impossible to extrapolate, the ambiguity and inaccessibility made this piece uncharacteristically heavy-going. But, spurred on by a multi-sensory finale, the audience’s enthusiastic applause could be interpreted as being an intellectual response rather than an emotional one.