I wasn't sure at first about Angika's Ether, in which, according to the programme, 'the dancers explore the contrast between energised space and nothingness'. In the event, however, this turned out to be one of the most consistently thrilling evenings of dance I've seen all year.

Angika are a neoclassical Indian dance company headed by choreographers Mayuri Boonham and Subathra Subramaniam. Their first piece was 'Urban Temple', in which a quintet of dancers perform sleekly evolved classical choreography to a whip-taut electronic score by the MTV award-winning MIDIval PunditZ. The set, created in light by Justin Farndale, shows a skyscraper city at night, the time is the present, the Kali Yuga or Dark Age, and the five performers are at once contemporary women and the mythological beings who have seen the city rise and will watch it fall. The dancing is impeccably detailed, but its racy sheen and sensual attack show just how far the Bharatnatyam style can be taken and still remain itself.

'Ether', the evening's second piece, is more meditative in nature, and the intricate knotwork of its choreography seems to represent the subtle connective forces of the universe. Despite the ethereality of the concept, this is not a soft-focused piece, and, with the exception of an overextended central section, is structured so tightly its wires sing.

from

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1759140,00.html