♪♪ This June, the American choreographer Lar Lubovitch brought his dance company to the Bath Festival as part of their celebration of the arts of America.

The starting point of Lubovitch's work is always the music.

And whether he's choreographing to Scriabin or Steve Reich, he takes his mood directly from the score and links the phrasing of his movement to its structure.

"Concerto Six Twenty-Two," the first piece we see tonight, is named after the Mozart clarinet concerto Koechel 622.

Like the music, his style is graceful, with formal lifts, classical steps, and elegantly curved arms.

But this is punctuated by movements that are ungainly, even comic, such as goofy jumps and games of tag that make the dancers seem like boisterous children.

The two buoyant outer movements contrast with the quiet core of the piece, a slow and tender duet for two men.

"Concerto Six Twenty-Two," performed by the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company.

[ Up-tempo classical music playing ] [ Music stops ] [ Soft classical music playing ] [ Music stops ] [ Up-tempo classical music playing ] "Concerto Six Twenty-Two."

The solo clarinet was played by Duncan Prescott.

This year, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company launched its 20th anniversary with a season at the New York City Center.

Lubovitch also took part in New York City Ballet's Festival of American Music and Dance by creating a new work for them to George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

Lubovitch's own company has no stars and makes no great claims to self-importance.

But it is marked by a very idiosyncratic style of movement.

It's a style that we rarely see in British companies -- loose-limbed, athletic, and with a casual exuberance that asks not to be taken too seriously.

The second piece in tonight's program, "North Star," is set to music by Philip Glass.

And, again, the movement reflects the score, with its dense, hypnotic layering of sound.

This time, the dancers move together so closely that they rarely break contact.

And what we see is not so much a sequence of steps as a clump of bodies that ebb and flow through space.

It's almost like watching iron filings being dragged around by a giant magnet.

Lar Lubovitch's "North Star."

[ Mid-tempo electronic music, vocalizing ] [ Music stops ] [ Mid-tempo electronic music playing ] [ Music stops ] [ Mid-tempo electronic music, vocalizing ] [ Music stops ] [ Intense electronic music playing ] [ Music stops ] [ Mid-tempo electronic music playing ] [ Vocalizing ] [ Mid-tempo electronic music playing ] [ Music stops ] ♪♪