DURING the Fringe, we flip from the 11-month scarcity of contemporary dance performance in our city to a situation where can we see umpteen shows in a single day. 

A plethora is annually housed at Dance Base whose permanent facility for learning and recreation adapts well; inspiring festival visitors as well as a strong year-round contingent of local punters who cherish a cultivated dance interest. Individual shows reward witness. I took in a whole day.

Right now, it is rare hereabouts to find a hall whose architecture is not compromised by the standard Fringe black-drape masking and lighting rig framework. Exceptionally, Dance Base’s vaulted studio 3 retains its exposed concrete presence. A Basque showcase, first on my agenda, pleasingly pre-sets this space with grey plastic construction components.

In a performance called Jarraibiderik Gabe (⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑) a duo of captivating panther-like dancers penetrates the scene with a movement vocabulary of urgent elegance. Their dance of deft handling serves to construct a sculptural piece out of the pre-strewn components and unveil some intriguing surprises. Multi-functioned, polished, flawless, edgeless — such words could equally describe the inanimate objects or the dancing, except where performers Julia Razquin and Ioar Labat accomplish a dash of urgent propulsion. And, my goodness, they are dashing.

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Skilled in her manipulation of objects and inclined to catharsis Helena Wilhelmsson then gives an auto-solo called Trembling Frequencies (⭑⭑⭑⭑☆) that illuminates how a body might appear stylish on the surface while being in unfathomable deep trouble. This would look neurotic if it weren’t laid out with an intelligent sense of theatre. She cantilevers, she dives, she croons into a microphone, she shrieks into a steel bucket. She takes applause with the earlier duo and invites us for a chat.

A nationally branded showcase exhibits the notion of there being some other place, posing its challenges whilst offering creative haven. Dance Base, our national centre for dance, meets its remit to host and present visiting troupes. The organisation also has a mission to develop local talent.

Celtic Connections’ teatime show gives youth a chance, with a twinning of peer apprentice dancers. First National Youth Arts Wales dance Momentum-Undone (⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑) to intact chunks of powerful romantic music. Movement, choreographed, by Marcus Jarrell Willis is dark-mirror passionate and voluminous. As if institutionalised or in the grip of a zealous cult, the dancers, wearing dark ecclesiastic frock coats and sporting mis-matched ankle socks, fizz through a pelting Tchaikovsky waltz. They thrill with exactitude whilst playing right to the edge of it all falling apart.  

Thereafter The National Youth Dance Company of Scotland populate the stage in Afterglow (⭑⭑⭑⭑☆), choreographed by Tess Letham. This work suggests something in the manner of a genre painting, where a poetic contingent that hovers outside of the frame causes figures to appear simultaneously gilded and unnerved. There’s a vaudevillian Pierrot. There’s a hoop girl. Ultimately, vigorous high-stakes line dancing ensues and each individual takes flight. These performers are living their age of anxiety, as young people with aspiration and skill (and debt) facing limited outlet. Temporarily, they inhabit a groundbreaking event in a credible setting.

HK Soul Showcase proposes an exploration of interpersonal dynamics in high-density living. First, we see choreographer Justyne Li’s Gemini (⭑⭑⭑⭑☆) a flash of genius in stark surroundings, where performers Wang Jiani and Wesley Wong coruscate with skill and reflex. Theirs is exquisitely scaled theatre, whose manipulation, a kind of psychic chiropractice, compels full concentration in the moment. See this if you see nothing else!

Immediate too is a subsequent duet, Romantic 4:48 AM (⭑⭑⭑⭑☆), in which choreographer Ka Wing adds a clownesque tinge. Alienation is explored — the kind where a single audience member might laugh in shrill recognition. Did I detect the influence of central European tradition? There’s also a nod to postmodern sculpture in moments where the dancers feature domestic appliances with wry finesse.

Hypnotic and persuasive, Proximities (⭑⭑⭑⭑☆) given by Lei Dance Theatre as part of Taiwan Season, pluralises notions of shifting distance. In choreography by Lao-French Ole Khamchania, three women loop sinuous sequences of advance and retreat. Afterward, two near-naked walking-marathon men become gradually raucous. The group unites, wheeling into calculated interaction that boils up then simmers down. Distress signals that are at first submerged, hiding in the plain sight of physical continuity, are coaxed to unnerving impact. How did we not see this coming? Eventually, the ensemble amounts to a community that could defend itself or be seen in poignant retreat.

Was my day a jive of episodes or a single dance of many parts? The journey ended with Penny Chivas’s solo piece Where We Choose to Stand (⭑⭑⭑⭑☆). Here’s somebody who regularly engages with climate activism. Her show’s premise is the shift in behaviour and utility that happens during public protest: how this resembles the logistics of performance. She amends the black box of Dance Base’s studio 1 by gently installing audience members on the scene and catalysing their statements. The ensuing bind of disruption and safety makes for emulsification, where overconsideration might infantilise, notwithstanding the undeniable beauty of strangers’ finding commonality, with enabled ease. Reseated, we process our thoughts while Chivas wends her way through dance manoeuvres that look honest and practical even while the flicker of her eyelines conveys an anxious awareness. A moon-panel hovers. Lighting effects assert a time cycle. A countdown?

All shows run until August 16, except Proximities which runs until August 30. For tickets see: dancebase.co.uk.