As I write this, a minibus is wending its way back to Bournemouth from Bristol. Inside, the driver, JSLN Artistic Director, Sören Niewelt, will be keen to get his team of eight dancers back for a night’s sleep after almost two hours of extraordinary dance at the Redgrave tonight.

JSLN, surprisingly, given their talent, remain unfunded. They really do have the feel of a ‘band on the run’, working mostly for the love of dance, picking up friends as they go. This is probably as far as you can get from a life spent with a more established company, but JSLN put in every bit as much commitment and passion for their art as any of the bigger names. Its appeal lies, partly, in its mix of neo classical and sometimes zany jaunts into popular mainstream – last year this troupe gave us a dance version of ‘Allo! Allo!’. This time they were probably even more ambitious with a portrayal of ‘Austin Powers’, including a wonderful rendering of Dr Evil’s cat Mr Bigglesworth, danced by the ever-excellent Jessica Larbig.

A small company, JSLN bring their performances to smaller stages round Britain, where audiences are up close and very personal, giving dance students, in particular, a chance to see how the professionals do it, just an arm’s length away. That we were also able to chat to the Director and the company as they stood at the footlights at the end of the performance was both heartwarming and enlightening. To learn that the final piece, danced with enormous empathy and sophistication to movements from J S Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, was put together in just ten days was jaw-dropping. We also learned that there was no money for a physiotherapist to sort out one of the dancer’s troublesome backs. Life on the road can be tough.

Tonight’s programme was divided into three parts. Beginning with nineteenth century works collected as ‘Spirits of the Ballet’, Caroline Rees and Sean Williams danced ‘Spectre de la Rose’ to music by Carl Maria von Weber. Rees seemed to acquire castor wheels under her feet with effortless en pointe, while Williams impressed with muscular grand jetés. Next, the pas de trois ‘La Sylphide’ brought to the stage the very watchable Jessica Larbig and Katie Murray with the other impressive male lead Jamie Haughton. All brought a heightened sense of fluidity to some haunting violin lines within Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer’s background composition.

Director Niewelt then plunged us into his very singular vision for Mojo in Motion, a comedic ballet, based on the Austin Powers film series, in which robotic female dancers, clad into 60’s ‘dolly’ dresses in wild pink and orange designs, strutted to Mambo Number 5, as Dr Evil’s wicked Frau sought to take over the world. I’m not sure I followed all the twists in the tale, but it was intensely animated and fun to watch. And Katie Murray’s tap was something to savour.

Finally the entire company of eight dancers joined forces for the neoclassical work, Consequential Gaps. Kitted out in very stylish black and white shirts and black shorts, the company performed a piece which seemed to amplify the angles and directions of the flowing orchestral backing. Larbig and Williams and Murray and Haughton formed impressively close expressive partnerships – Larbig always impressively in control when held high aloft.

Two people in tonight’s regrettably small audience had never been to see live ballet before. They were visibly lifted by the experience and vowed to go again – two more hard-won friends for JSLN. Performances of this standard deserve greater support.    ★★★★☆     Simon Bishop   6^th July 2017