Live Performance Review: Batsheva Dance Company: Hora (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2012), Saturday 01.09.2012 19:30 The Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh 

This was not a dance performance. It was music and movement, though it was truly remarkable. I am aware this may well sound pretentious, though the performance was anything but. There is no way of describing in a way that would do justice, though I'll give it a bash.

Eleven stunning specimens on the stage, five men and six women, doing what appears to be repeated free-form movement, which then effortlessly slips into complexly synchronised and pulsatingly rhythmic movement on a loop. The set was simply a box with a bench at the back for the performers to rest upon and obviously the forth wall missing; the performers were trapped. The lighting was simple though breathtaking enabling varying definition of the performers. The audio that accompanied was in parts: odd, ambient, thunderously familiar (Wagner's The Ride of Walkyres) and cheeky interpretations (John Williams Star Wars Theme).

This was unlike anything I have seen before. I was grinning from ear to ear for most of the performance and for a time having to stifle laughing. Sometimes when something is so good, I have the urge to laugh. I would regard this as having been abstract, beautiful, baffling art of the highest order. This is quite possibly the finest visual performance I've ever seen, I am stunned by how excellent it was. The cumulative effect was shivers and the verge of tears. For essentially movement to provoke this response I consider to be astonishing.

Thanks to E.I.F. 2012, I have now seen/heard two performances, that have been so exceptional, that it would not be appropriate to give a rating. I feel blessed (in a non-religious sense) to have witnessed this.