DAVID BELLAN talks to the co-founder of Stan Won't Dance troupe about a new production at the Oxford Playhouse

Stan Won't Dance was formed in 2003 by Liam Steel, fellow performer Robert Tannion and the producer Ellie Beedham. They had worked together with DV8 Physical Theatre, a company that still exists, but wanted to expand the boundaries of the art form.

"We'd always wanted to do something together. DV8 were the first to use the term physical theatre' and put over something emotional through movement without making pretty shapes. We wanted to take that further.

"Our work has a text. It's a play from beginning to end with a very strong narrative, but, at the same time, it's a form of dance. Our company are all dancers who can also act and speak well on stage."

I wondered about the group's rather odd name.

"Well Stan is an amalgam of bits of our two names, but both our dads were builders and it so it's also a nod towards the down-to-earth attitude that says What on earth are two guys like you doing going into dance?', and then it's also about the fact that we won't do what's generally regarded as dance.

"We're looking for natural movement - it's not about people in white leotards pointing their feet. So if someone on the Arts Council says This isn't really dance' we can say Well, read what it says on the tin.'"

Revelations takes its title from the Book of Revelations and is influenced, among other things, by the biblical notions of epic retribution.

"I've had the idea for a long time, but last year we had the tsunami, the earthquake in Pakistan and the tornado in New Orleans, and there were a lot of personal things happening with me and my friends, relationships breaking up and so on. I was struck by such things happening in parallel - we can watch 20,000 people dying on television and then at home your wife's left you or your next door neighbour's died and that can be just as devastating.

"So the piece is about bringing these two sides together - huge events that could end the world and small events that shake our own personal world. It takes place around a couple who are, in a sense, everyman.

"It's about four angels who come down to wreak havoc on the world, but what they do is wreak it on this one couple. So they drive them to the point of self-destruction. That brings us to the religious question: is God allowing this to happen, is he controlling it, or are we in control of our own destiny?"

Liam says he's read the Book of Revelations at least ten times, and not understood all of it yet. Is he religious himself or was he simply researching what looked like a promising idea?

"Well the second possibility really, but I'm fascinated by the role that religion plays in our world, especially nowadays in terms of the wars and the bombings that are going on, supposedly done from a religious standpoint. Politics and religion stand hand in hand now, and I'm interested because I want to make works that say something."

I suggest that with a work that's physical to the point of dangerous, things must be worked out quite a lot in advance of trying it out in the studio.

"Well, Bob and I work together on the choreography and the dancers play a role as well. I come in with everything very clear but you have to be willing to throw it all out and start again if need be. It's incredibly physical.

"As I said, we do dance, but the set is a huge metal grid encased in a seven-and-a-half-metre dome. There are people flying around in the air the whole time but I didn't want to use harnesses and wires and things like that, so everything is done though brute strength.

"I've always been fascinated by that huge space above the stage. Dancers spend a lot of time jumping to try and leave the floor and one of my priorities has been to actually use that space.

"I was lucky to have a break before starting in which I was able to work out how high bars should be, how far apart, and so all that was done prior to rehearsal. But the play is being written as we make the piece, so all this is being created at the same time.

"What we start with is almost like a story-board that you'd have with a film and from that we form individual scenes and flesh those out, and let the characters develop, and look for the choreographic language: we had to find a clear choreographic language for the angels that's different from the couple, so that each character stands out."

Revelations is at the Oxford Playhouse on Tuesday, at the Wyvern, Swindon, on November 24, and at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank on November 30 and December 1.