An exciting programme of works by local choreographers is on view at The Mill next week. DAVID BELLAN talked to artistic directors Nickely Burke and Keira Martin

Biserk is Oxford’s own contemporary dance company, and under its artistic director, Nickely Burke, it has been producing quality work for several years.

I went to watch rehearsals of Hotel, which is still being created, and will have its premiere next week. It is amazing how quickly dancers pick up new steps and interesting to see how much input they have into the work being made.

In the studio behind the Pegasus Theatre in Oxford rehearsals proceed with much laughter and fun, but, underneath, this is a serious business. During a break, Nickely talked about her ideas for this work.

“The original idea was that a stranger turns up at a hotel in the middle of nowhere in a storm and there are four women there. My idea was that it’s in Scotland in some deserted place on top of a hill, or maybe in Austria at the top of a mountain which is impassable because of the weather.

"I wanted an actor involved, and I asked Ryan Saunders, a young actor who grew up in Oxfordshire and went to the Oxford School of Drama. He also has some dance experience, which I needed, because I really wanted him to be involved in a physical way, not just standing at the front narrating, with us behind him dancing.

"Then I hit upon the idea that he’s a writer writing a book, and that we’re the characters he’s creating as he goes. At the beginning, we’re all doing an abstract dance and then he starts to create the characters . . . a hotel owner, Miss Coles (played by Nickely herself) and a heroine, and, of course, the man who arrives and stirs things up. Miss Coles is excited because there usually isn’t much happening in the hotel, but tonight it is. We also wanted the writer to have some emotional attachment to one of his characters, Violet, so she may also be a real person in real life. I like the way that he gets so involved in the ambience he’s creating that he comes out of the writing and into the actual story at times.”

So the character of the writer is creating the story. During rehearsals it was clear that Ryan, the actor, was also helping create the piece itself, partly improvising his speech. I asked him how much he is contributing to the work.

“An awful lot! Nickely and I both have very strong ideas, and also I’m doing a drama workshop every day with the dancers, trying to push them out of their comfort zone and help bring the characters to life, and they’re doing that incredibly well. At the moment, I’m improvising my speech as I create the characters, but my aim is to have it scripted, so that the dancers know exactly when I’m finishing and take their cues from that. So really I’m creating the script while Nickely is creating the dance.”

Biserk are also performing two other works. She Knows That You Know, made in April this year, is again about a group of women in a house, drinking champagne. A diary is found containing a secret that we never quite discover, but which sets a train of events in motion.

In contrast, A to Z, also made earlier this year, is a contemporary duet between Nickely Burke and David Hudson, and although not specific, depicts a relationship. It’s about a meeting, says Nickely, curiosity and exchange, and then a parting of the ways. It promises to be quite a poignant piece. The music for both these pieces is by Philip Glass.

Biserk has had the misfortune to lose its Arts Council funding, which should not happen to a company of this quality, but the show goes ahead at Nickely Burke’s own expense, with help from Cherwell District Council, West Oxfordshire District Council and Oxfordshire County Council.

The other company taking part in this joint evening is Keiradance, run by Keira Martin. Keira’s work is a fusion of contemporary dance — the basis of her training as a dancer — and Irish dance, which she has been performing since childhood. Her parents were Irish musicians, and she grew up doing a jig as a party piece. I asked her how Irish the current work is.

“Very Irish! I wanted to do something that was very traditional. While I was training to be a professional contemporary dancer I left the Irish dance aside for a bit, but I’ve come back to it now, and I always knew I would do something like this. I’ve taken what I know in contemporary dance and added it to Irish steps. The dances are all to traditional Irish songs, and the dance is mainly connected to what the singer is singing about — leaving home, all that kind of thing — but it has lots of energy. I have four dancers; sometimes we do duets, sometimes it’s a solo, and three musicians, one of whom is a singer."

This should be a varied and entertaining evening, and it’s at the Mill Arts Centre in Banbury on Thursday.

For tickets call 01295 279002.