It was good to have this fine company back in Oxford last week. They presented a varied and exciting triple bill of Alston’s work. It began with Out of the Strong, a long piece danced to Prokofiev’s mainly pessimistic sixth piano sonata, written at the time of Stalin’s great purge, and beautifully performed on stage by Jason Ridgeway. A long solo by the impressive Nathan Goodman starts off a long series of dances, with three, then four girls reacting to the percussive first movement. The second is lighter, with a jaunty feel to it, and then comes the lyrical slow movement. It’s an extended waltz, featuring Jordi Calpe Serrats and Oxford’s Hannah Kidd, Alston’s most charismatic dancer, in a passionate love duet. The finale brings most of the company on stage in a high-speed reaction to Prokofiev’s musical rage at the situation in his country. The dance, however, is more vigorous than angry.

Love is also at the centre of Light Flooding into Darkened Rooms, set in the period of Denis Gaultier’s 17th-century lute pieces. We find Charlotte Eatock and Pierre Tapon seething with desire, yet constrained by the conventions of that time. The work is mainly slow and measured, full of beautiful positions momentarily held, embraces and a complex flow of intimate movement, as their passion overcomes their inhibitions. The golden light of the title, created by Charles Balfour, forms an integral part of the work’s atmosphere, and greatly heightens the feeling that we are intruding on a private expression of burning affection.

Finally came Roughcut, originally made 20 years ago for Rambert Dance Company, but now re-constructed by Martin Lawrance, formerly a leading dancer with Alston, and now rehearsal director. It’s danced to a combination of tape and live Clarinet and Guitar by Steve Reich and, as you’d expect from this composer, its bright, beguiling, repetitive phrases and complex rhythms spur Alston’s dancers into an expression of modern- day exuberance.