Tokyo-born Takehiro Ueyama wanted to be a baseball player until, rather later than most would-be dancers, he switched his ambitions and moved to New York to study at Juilliard. After a stint with the Martha Graham Ensemble he joined the Paul Taylor Company and eight years later formed his own troupe, Take (pronounced Tak-ay). Although there is a Japanese subtlety in Ueyama’s choreography, Taylor’s influence is far more apparent – Ueyama still dances with all the sweep and elasticity that that company imbued in him.

Looking For Water (left), first seen last year, has a gentle timelessness to its opening, where Jason Jeunette and Mark Wiener’s visual effects scroll across a black backdrop like puffs of exhaled smoke. Against it, three white-clad dancers sink and stretch as if dipping in water. They are joined by others, who move in unison, stretching and pacing slowly, long skirts swirling, to Damian Eckstein’s music, with sounds like distant train sirens punctuating a percussive beat. Kate Hirstein dances a solo prone on the floor, languidly moving her arms like wings. The tempo picks up and all seven dancers whirl about, flipping up their long skirts (the men wear them too), jumping and snatching up their feet as if dancing on something hot. There is no literal seeking of water in this abstract piece but there are aquatic images, such as everyone swaying back and forth like sea anemones.