On Dance

What, no sheep? No rabbits? Can this be the annual international new dance season we have come to know and love? The Place Theatre's ever stimulating Turning World can usually be relied on for a four-footed gimmick. It once featured an avant-garde troupe from Budapest whose act hinged on a bizarre rabbit-throwing sequence. In the end they, er, dropped the rabbits in deference to British bunny-loving sensibilities. Last year a Belgian company required the services of Rent-a-Sheep to add verisimilitude to its little fte champtre. You began to wonder if new dance was in some kind of trouble. Anyway. All is not lost. A stage that has seen it all from raw eggs to steaming electric kettles now plays host to apples. Apples? Apples. And lemons.

Angels Margarit enacts her Catalan pastora Corolla with the help of various fruits and a large bale of hay. This fruity solo can be seen at The Place on Friday and Saturday. Next week, The Turning World becomes a fruit-free zone and will feature the Dutch company, de Jonge/Voortman, with Under a Cloud (below) which deconstructs the agonies of dancing on pointe. Future joys include Compagnie Phillippe Saire with Nebuleuse (Queen Elizabeth Hall 25 May) and the inimitable Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker with Toccata (QEH 27-28 May). The season continues till 18 June at various London venues.

The Place Theatre, 17 Dukes Rd, WC1 (071-387 0031)