Preview: Noor, Warwick Arts Centre, Warwick

A dancer looking for the light

In her new show, the Birmingham-based Indian choreographer Anurekha Ghosh explores the concept of enlightenment. Noor (Urdu for "light") blends Western contemporary dance, Japanese Butoh, south Indian martial arts with modern north Indian Kathak.

"I wanted to investigate our notion of light from a scientific, religious and spiritual perspective," she says. "Akram Khan helped me to translate the complex concepts into a dance language. Then I developed the vocabulary. It was essential my other dancers were trained in the techniques that I was merging, before I could choreograph the piece."

Ghosh, who formed her own company in 2001, turned down a chance to study engineering at Oxford to pursue a career in dance. She was trained in classical Kathak as a child in Calcutta, before learning other forms that have shaped her technique, including Sufism, martial arts and Indian classical music.

She is joined on stage by the Japanese dancer Yuko Inoue, Belgian-based Yentl de Werdt and Titania Hanraha from Ireland, as well as Indian musicians Partha Sarathi Mukherjee (tabla) and Sandeep Mishra (sarangi), who have both collaborated with Akram Khan's Dance Company.

The work includes an underwater film of the dancers, as well as projected images. The music is composed by Alfonso Esposito, whose work has been performed on many tours with the Dalai Lama.

"Using Kathak movements, I create shapes with the upper body with simple fluidity. I take out the lower tapping rhythms usually associated with the dance, replacing it with contemporary leg movements and dimensions.

"Kathak is a very erect body form, like ballet, where the body is upright. I've broken that as well and in my version, the dancers move to various levels. This is mixed with martial arts techniques, which allow your body to move like a snake and has a lot of kick movements."

28 and 29 September (024-7652 4524), then touring (www.anurekha ghoshcompany.com)