Madonna once said, “Being a dancer is a dog’s life”, and she’s not far wrong. As well as the constant pounding your body takes leading to inevitable injuries, there’s the endless rejection, the fierce competition and ultimately the brevity of your performing shelf-life. With the prospect of all this to contend with, frankly, it’s a wonder anyone wants to do it at all.

But this is balanced by the excitement, satisfaction and sheer elation clearly visible in a dancer’s eyes when they perform. And more and more young people do want to become dancers – but artistic opportunities can be a rarity.

For this reason, National Dance Company Wales has devised a concept that is designed to kick-start newly professional dancers’ careers by showcasing what they can do. The result is Plunge, a diverse double-bill that is the fruits of a project the company will hopefully now run annually.

The purpose of the project is not only to show the company’s commitment to the future of contemporary dance in smaller venues in Wales as well as cutting a dash literally on the world stage.

It is where the then Diversions was started when co-founder Roy Campbell-Moore and Ann Sholem began that huge trek to give Wales a quality dance company that could wipe its face first in the Wales, then the UK and eventually become a player on the international scene.

And so to the programme. The first piece, ‘Hinterland’, is choreographed by Campbell-Moore. This started out life 18 months ago and is particularly poignant because it’s collaboration with the late, great composer Alun Hoddinott. The score is beautiful. Endlessly inventive and varied, it works brilliantly in tandem with the choreography as the dancers depict the rites of love; its joys, its disappointments, its complexities.

Dressed in floaty, semi-translucent costumes, against a white backdrop they look like spring buds emerging from the winter’s snow only to be robbed of that innocence when love and relationships come into play. The best portrayal of the vicissitudes of romantic love is when the dancers cover each other’s mouths as if to mimic the moment of universal experience when something is said in anger or jest that cannot be taken back.

‘Shut up’, as the title suggests, is an altogether more in-yer-face affair. Equally, though, it too explores what happens when love turns dysfunctional. It’s based on a previous production called SHH!, but I saw the original version and to say they’re even vaguely similar does a disservice to both because they’re completely different beasts with their own unique identity.

This piece was conceived much more in collaboration between the choreographers, former company dancers Sarah Storer and Phil Williams, and the young troupe and it shows. If ‘Hinterland’ is elegant and refined, ‘Shut Up’ is all ragged rage and untamed aggression.

Ultimately, the Plunge dancers Michael Barnes, Sebastian Langueneur, Kate Lyons, Lauren Bridle, Philippa Collumbell and Merry Holden not only showcase young professional dance talent but also demonstrates our national company is holding to its word.

Jason Jones