STILLNESS, passion, tragedy, light and joy are all to be expected from Henri Oguike Dance Company's performance at The Corn Exchange, Newbury, on Wednesday, October 22 at 7.45pm.

For a company only in its third year, HODC has been impossible to ignore this year.

The first tour of this, their latest show, received such hot press attention locally, nationally and in specialist publications such as Dance Now, which said that: "Oguike's bold dance has a bruised brutality that lodges beneath a viewer's skin. Afterwards you know you've experienced something genuine."

The performance opens with the relatively new work Front Line, which is set to Shostakovich's 9 Quartet. This particular piece was written late in the composer's life, when he became withdrawn into thoughts of death and stillness.

The mood of the music is constantly changing, fighting with itself, the instruments squeal and engage in wild stamping or periods of extreme anger followed by listlessness. The Pavao Quartet will play the music for this piece live.

Set to Astor Piazolla's Histoire du Tango, the second piece, Melancholy Thoughts, uses the passion in the music to reflect passion and dispassion between partners.

The third piece sees the full company of dancers perform to Henry Purcell's classic Dido and Aeneas, which is followed by Oguike himself performing the solo f.p.s (frames per second).

Closing the evening's celebration of dance will be Finale, a high-spirited, gambolling, strolling dance involving the full company, set to the Latin-tinged music of Ren Aubry.

It's no wonder the dance world was buzzing; within a year of forming, the company had won the Time Out Live Award for being the most outstanding new dance company.

Henri is developing a strong reputation as "the next big thing" on the dance scene, much of which he owes to his approach to choreography - he uses the music as his first inspiration, rather than deciding on a theme.

The Times put it this way: "For Oguike the dance is the music shaped by its moods and motives. It's exciting to see a young choreographer turned on by his music, and just as exciting to see a company of talented young dancers share that passion."

Tickets are available from The Corn Exchange box office on 01635 522733, priced £11, or, alternatively, can be booked by logging on to www.cornexchangenew.com