DanceEast should be congratulated for putting together this welcome addition to the festival, which had less dance on offer than usual.

DanceEast should be congratulated for putting together this welcome addition to the festival, which had less dance on offer than usual.

However, this event was well publicised for being just men dancing and few dance fans – and others – could resist it! After all, most of us remember the wonderful male version of Swan Lake from the Adventures in Motion Pictures gang.

This programme at Norwich Playhouse saw four separate pieces which were all quite different yet saw the choreographer as dancer, too – something which is clearly a challenge for those involved.

And they all used light as a clever device to emphasis and define their movements and the spaces in which they worked.

The first piece, the Haman and Navas Project, saw the Canada-based dancer Jose Navas perform to the America-based Walter Haman's wonderful cello playing – each stretching the other to new heights.

The second piece saw the first of three world premiere's, fps (frames per second), performed by Henri Oguike who used mirrors and both his shadows and reflections to present a vivid piece set to Schubert's String Quartet No 13.

Ben Wright performed I to original music by Alan Stones which saw him fight to establish his identity in an enclosed space while Russell Maliphant had perhaps the most energetic piece with One Part II, set to music by Bach.

All dancers used floor-based movements and showed great precision and power and the post-performance talk revealed their hopes and aspirations – and the audience's appreciation.