Director Lloyd Newson was originally trained in ballet, but found the technique and the attitude of most of the people who spend their lives perfecting that technique both limiting and emotionally constraining.

More than 10 years after forming DV8, Newson has returned to the world of ballet, using it as a metaphor for the perfection and conformity that we all strive for in various areas of our lives.

Bound To Please is a work that will probably not please some loyal DV8 groupies, because there is a measure of superficiality in the way it deals with its theme. That superficiality may well be intentional, because we are made to explore an art form that deals in artifice, and illusion. Nevertheless, with a lot of the physicality removed from the performers' interaction — and remember it was Newson who first coined the phrase 'physical theatre' — the tensions that he usually engineers so well are distinctly subdued.

However, as always, the set is a wonderful assemblage of revolving walls, mirrors, sliding panels, hidden doors that suddenly open to reveal illicit activities, a meshed-in upper level, and even a stage revolve. Adrian Johnson provides a score that encompasses minimalism, pop, and even a sort of lushly orchestrated French street music, and as always, Jack Thompson's lighting is an art work that effortlessly alters our focus of attention.

When the septuagenarian Diana Payne-Myers is stalked by scruffy young Liam Steel, one fears the worst, and indeed for some, their sexual coupling could be viewed with a revulsion that might seem to make murder a more acceptable option. But why have we as a society come to assume that the old cannot partake in the pleasures of the flesh? Likewise, with the power and the poignancy of the performance given by Payne-Myers, one realizes just what can be lost because of a similar preconception that is only able to equate dance with youth and beauty, and thus denies most older dancers any platform at all. But, perhaps what Newson is also saying is that the mind of the dancer is forever trapped in a world of youthful fantasy? As ever, Newson intrigues, while tackling taboos head on.