He’s innovative, progressive and utterly unpredictable: former Brighton Festival guest curator Hofesh Shechter is rightly held in very high regard.

The buzz around his latest show, Barbarians, culminated in excitable whispers that echoed around the Brighton Dome as the curtains rose.

A choreographer who is known not so much to break conventions as to smash them onto the stage and dance them into ashes, Shechter is known in art circles as a true visionary.

The show didn’t disappoint.

A trilogy of pieces played out over the evening, with the opening scenes recognizably his work, with a disjoined narrative and angular, brash structures.

Stark lighting contrasts and sharp, almost violent musical changes underpinned a dance that was aggressive yet mesmerizing.

Next up, tHE bAD was futuristic and subversive. As with all his dances, this one told a story, played out with raw emotion.

Finally, in the last act of the evening, a romance: traditional folk outfits and two performers frustratedly explained two sides of a heated argument.

The last scene had all the dancers on stage, whirling and vibrant, closing a passionate evening with a vision that was tender and dramatic at the same time.

The reputation has been upheld.

Five stars