Photographs of contemporary dance can look like advertisements for underwear; frequently the dancers seem to be clad in their knickers. That may well be part of the attraction; contemporary dance does have a following, none more so than the Sydney Dance Company.

The company has just returned from a tour to New York and parts of the East Coast of the US funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Back here, they are preparing a new program to be called ORB, described as ‘an extraordinary lunar mystery’, if that’s any help. The new program will consist of two works: Ocho by Artistic Director, Rafael Bonachela and composer Nick Wales, together with Full Moon by Cheng Tsung-Lung who is Director of the Cloud Gate Company of Taiwan. Cloud Gate were first seen here as part of the Olympic Arts Festival in 2000.

ORB will open in Sydney on April 29, in Melbourne on May 17 and Canberra on May 25.

Despite my bad taste reference to underwear, this is a serious dance company in which Bonachela leads a gifted and committed group of young dancers. This energetic company then sets off on a national tour with a quite different program called Frame of Mind from June 23 to August 26, visiting 16 centres in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory. The program is a double bill of two already successful works – Wildebeest by Gabrille Nankivell and Frame of Mind by Rafael Bonachela.