Vancouver-based Ballet British Columbia build on traditional ballet training with bold moves that are new to the eyes of even the most hardened modern dance fan.

Comprising three courses, the first serving was 16 + a room, choreographed by Emily Molnar, who founded the company in 2009. Set to a thumping musical backdrop, the 27-minute piece is based on the concept of youth and the forming and breaking of bonds. The 13 dancers show complete control despite the energy and complexities of the moves; in some sections they flow like liquid, bodies are stretched and hip hop segues into a pirouette.

Next up was Solo Echo, choreographed by Crystal Pite and accompanied by two Brahms cello sonatas with snow falling at the back of the stage. This time seven dancers give us 20 minutes of brief trysts

The use of sliding as a dance move pervades Pite’s choreography. It's inch perfect. It has to be. The dancers display total control as they jolt, flick, embrace and fall as if in a continuous film. Could it really get any better?

Bill, comprising 18 dancers and directed by Sharon Eyal, was the final 30-minute incendiary piece and it exuded the confidence and skill that tears down the old order.

With every muscle on show and defined through a full body stocking, the cast are divided into 12 at the back, five in the middle and a lead at the front. Set to a pulsing score by Ori Lichtick, every dancer is part of the collective yet positively individual.

Could this be a Sex Pistols-type moment for modern dance?

Unlike pre-punk rock music scene in the 70s, which had hit the aural buffers, modern dance is still vibrant but not exactly groundbreaking.

Perhaps that's why only a non-European or American "upstart" dance company from Canada, devoid of the conservatism of the past 50 years, is now challenging the old order.

Ed Waugh