Rambert's latest uses the migrant crisis for superficial intrigue: Aisha and Abhaya reviewed

The January dance stage can be a site of naked contrition. Like a tippler grasping at green juice after a December of prosecco pukes (#NewYearNewMe), companies slap Swan Lakes and Giselles on the roster, eager to atone for the indulgences of Nutcracker season. It’s back to business at your opera houses and concert halls. Button up and batten down.

Enter Sadler’s Wells Sampled, a hair-down do in a sea of chignons. The show is a taster of the assorted fare that passes through the London venue, from ballroom to breakdance. Tickets are cheap, there’s Proms-style standing, and no one will shoot you STFU daggers if you whoop too loud. It’s all very relaxed.

Possibly too relaxed this year, at least in terms of programming. A highlight of Sampled is normally its balance of established and emerging genres. The 2020 lineup mostly courts the latter, though, leading to some puzzling gaps. There’s no ballet, for one — a curious oversight, given the prevalence of English National Ballet on the Sadler’s stage, among others. Also thin on the ground: resonant storytelling. New forms are vital to the landscape, no question, but successful dance embraces human stories; it doesn’t sidestep them in favour of novelty.

Successful dance embraces human stories; it doesn’t sidestep them in favour of novelty

Living Archive, from contemporary choreographer Wayne McGregor, is the worst offender on this front. A loud-and-proud technophile, McGregor created this 2019 piece by plugging his repertoire into a bespoke Google platform and repackaging its algorithms. Some of the moves are beautiful — long extensions, sinuous cascading hips — but their random assembly left me cold. Géométrie Variable’s stab at prismatic port de bras is similarly flat, an exercise with no emotional spark.