Contemporary dance may not be to everyone’s taste but too many tired, grey performances of Swan Lake will encourage converts. Anyway, there’s no need to choose; enjoy the exuberance of 21st century dance and love those white tutus at the same time. Australia is an exporter of contemporary dance: right now Sydney Dance Company is appearing in the Steps Festival: Swiss International Biennale for Contemporary Dance.

The Sydney company is overseas for nearly five weeks with the support of the government through the Australia Council and DFAT. After performing in six Swiss cities and one just in Germany, over the border from Basel, the dancers fly to South America for performances in Brazil and Chile. They are presenting Interplay, a triple bill of remarkable variety.

Interplay begins with a work by Rafael Bonachela, the company’s Artistic Director, which he calls 2 in D Minor set to Bach’s Second Violin Partita. The dancers are joined on stage by violinist Veronique Serret ; a sophisticated exchange between movement and music. The other new work in the program is Gideon Obarzanek’s slightly folksy L’Chaim! (To life!). The company has also revived an outstanding work from 2011: ‘sleek and super sexy’, Raw Models was choreographed by Jacopo Godani, now the Artistic Director of the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company. This is a strong program. Back home, they will present seasons in late May in Canberra and Melbourne.