Wings, as it turned out, was the third part of a triple bill which opened with a half-hour gig by the Oxfordshire group Kismet. They consist of Melissa Holding on accordion, Jackie Singer on violin and mandola, Kath Lewis on clarinet and John Fletcher on guitar. All of them sing at times, in a show that is vaguely folk-orientated, and in a varied repertoire they made an enjoyable start to the evening. A highlight was a number celebrating the reopening of the Cotswold Line!

Gifted, by choreographer and dancer Ruth Pethybridge, who was for many years based in Oxford, was performed by Crossover — the inter-generational dance company run by Cecilia McFarlane. Among the group are three very young girls, a young man who is their best dancer, three women, a mature man, and a dancer in a wheelchair. They explore what it means to be a gifted dancer, and how that talent might be manifested in each individual. “Look at me,” they shout, as they leap and turn, stretching upwards. “Keep looking at me!” cries the most gifted man, demonstrating a high level of technique.

And so to the advertised work, Wings (pictured in rehearsal, above). This piece was created in three days by a cast of 38 dancers ranging in age from about five to pretty old, and including dancers from a Japanese company intriguingly named WaLE wale wOrks. It opens with 11 dancers emerging from beneath a huge sheet that covers the stage, and ends in semi-darkness, with a flock of fluorescent origami cranes held aloft by the dancers, and then taken out and presented to the audience. The work is inspired by flight and transformation, and represents a prayer “for the lives that have gone to another world since the tsunami in Japan”.

This is an effective, and at times moving piece, further enhanced by the surprise re-appearance of Melissa Holding, who joined the Japanese musicians to give a beautiful performance on the Koto — a sort of horizontal Japanese harp.