• LANDANCE – part of Inside Out Dorset, Valley of Stones, Nr Portesham

I CAN’T recall a more awe-inspiring yet strange experience than standing in a nature reserve looking out across a Dorset valley surrounded by dancers who suddenly appeared from the bushes.

This barefooted troupe, sporting grave expressions like the apocalypse was imminent, danced around us in contemporary fashion before dashing off.

Following a steward brandishing a stick with a piece of cloth on it, we were led through a hedge where a speaker was placed, blaring out the sound of what seemed to me to be a roaring fire, indicating that this not-so-merry band of dancers was in trouble.

At this point the natural beauty of the Valley of Stones became the perfect stage for the performance.

One of the young male dancers formed what looked like some back breaking shapes over the valley, moving freely like a willow tree in the wind to the sound of a lone trumpeter.

It was at that stage that the love story between two of the dancers began to play out, with separation and distance becoming proximity and eventual togetherness.

The audience was treated to another beautiful moment when the female dancer moved tantalisingly around a low bough of a tree.

We were moved on over some pretty hilly terrain to a stone circle with a silver piece of cloth in the middle.

In my mind this is where the performance piece dragged, with the youngest dancer laboriously moving rocks off the cloth so the troupe could start dancing underneath it.

This part was accompanied by some strange ethereal sounds booming out across the stone circle.

It would seem as though the lovers were happily reunited at the end of Landance and all ended well.

But I couldn’t help but think that the whole project took itself a little too seriously and the running time was too long.

People were advised to bring sturdy walking shoes for the performance but no mention was made of the fact that the audience was asked to walk over some seriously steep terrain that would cause some with less than perfect mobility to struggle.

The whole thing was played out with a lot of grandiose pomp and circumstance with no humour or flashes of lightness.

I thought the piece had a very dark, brooding feel to it that contrasted too sharply with the soft, hazy, gentle Dorset landscape it took place in. I’m sad to say I was left a little disappointed by it.