Live Performance Review: Scottish Ballet performing New Voices (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2013), Monday 19.08.2012 17:00 On Stage Studio, The Festival Theatre, Edinburgh 

For the uninitiated (like me before I went to this performance) the 'On Stage Studio' involves the stage curtain being closed and the audience sitting at what is usually the back of the stage.

This performance consisted of five relatively short pieces.
The first was a very slick-synchronised performance by four young ballerinas, I found this piece very enjoyable.

The second featured two male and two female ballerinas, by the end of the piece all but one of the dancers was stood in their underwear, for which I could see no rationale.
The third piece featured two male and one female and the fourth piece was two male and two female. Both of these I enjoyed greatly. I found the third to have a staccato tempo and the forth's tempo to be quite ferocious, both had an urgency about them.

The fifth required the audience to move from where we were and move to the first floor foyer. I don't think the site-specific nature of this added anything, the performance could have easily been managed on the stage with a couple of simple props. This piece appeared cobbled together and rushed. I feel this was reflected in the music. The movement from one musical piece to another was quite abrupt, and this was the case repeatedly. The first time it could be seen to serve the purpose of jolting the audience out of complacency, though it appeared to occur so often that it just became jarring.
To paraphrase Meatloaf, three out of five ain't bad.

Rating: 06/10.