Dance Umbrella 2011 opened with a farewell to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Three nights celebrating the great man’s work culminated in the bringing together of two visually stunning pieces, RainForest (pictured) and BIPED. In RainForest, the dancers spring and slide their way through Andy Warhol’s installation of Silver Clouds; a set that refuses to do anything but stay “installed”. They float among the dancers, the audience and into the orchestra pit, serving as a perfect metaphor for Cunningham’s work; never constrained, always breaking boundaries.

BIPED sees the entire company perform, joined by motion-captured projections of dancers. The company were not about to be overshadowed by technology on their final London performance and they danced a striking collage of tilts, bends and extensions, showing the best of what made Cunningham’s work so remarkable. The unanimous standing ovation was the only apt send off to a dedicated company and an incredible man.

The rebellious side of Cunningham materialises itself in the anarchic work of choreographer Karole Armitage, seen through a duo of her canonical works. In Two Theories, Armitage brings back the Quantum and String sections of her work Three Theories. In duets, the dancers attack the movement by gripping, grabbing and thrusting each other in the space, interpreting the same one minute of material in an abundance of ways.

The revival of Drastic-Classicism embraces the same attack as the previous work, as the dancers drag, kick and punch their way through the onstage musicians. Four guitarists and a drummer produce an explosive sound to accompany the dancers’ bursts of movement. Armitage explains this concoction as “the refinement of ballet, the intellectual side of modern dance and the rawness of punk”. When you leave the theatre feeling like a rock star, it’s clear she has stirred up something very, very right.

A recipe not quite as sweet is the work Brilliant Corners, choreographer Emanuel Gat’s second appearance at the festival. Like Armitage, Gat brilliantly varies the same material, skilfully toying with direction, speed and levels, yet the blaring accompaniment distracts from the intelligent movement. Silent solos and duets see the remainder of the company watch on from the sides, voyeurs to the quiet exploration unfolding before them. The simple moments of this dance are the most exquisite.

From the simple to the surreal, Caterina Sagna’s Basso Ostinato is an unexpected mix of dance, theatre and comedy. A LED screen translates the conversation of three men as they drink, smoke and dance onstage. As the men become more and more intoxicated they perform charades of previous gestures and stumble to the ground.

The audience are stunned at this unusually exciting work and the combination of the dancers’ dazed expressions, nonsense conversation and relentless physicality has the audience in stunned fits of laughter.

Dance Umbrella unquestionably achieves their goal of “Bringing New Dance to London”, supporting Sagna’s witty and beautifully strange creation. It’s impossible to predict what the 2012 festival will bring, but it can’t come around quickly enough.

Dance Umbrella is on at various London venues until 29 October. Find out more.

Read our interview with Dance Umbrella’s Artistic Director, Betsy Gregory.

Image by Tony Dougherty.