It’s been ten years since Emma-Jane Grieg - a talented dance artist with an amiable, Stacy Dooley-esque charisma - founded Body Politic in Oxford in 2012. Grieg had just graduated from Manchester university and wanted to build an approachable, yet passionate, dance community. Ten years on, Body Politic has not only endured but thrived, touring shows nationally and winning partnerships. For theDECADE, the team returned to Oxford’s Pegasus Theatre, alongside fresh talents from Portsmouth, London and Birmingham, for a one-night showcase to reflect on what they’ve learned and achieved.

There were nine acts in total, consisting of four ensemble pieces, three solo pieces and one duet.

The show opens with Journey - a piece created during Body Politic’s Young Artist residency. Whilst the group of dancers were not always entirely confident or coordinated in their movements, the choreography was excellent and the piece was movingly sincere and beautiful.

The second piece, Impact Youth’s Sapphire Strong, another ensemble piece, explores strength and vibrancy. Whilst mesmerizing in the moment, ultimately the piece did not distinguish itself from what came before or afterwards, although the dancing was strong.

Anchor, a duet from dancers Jayde Edwards and Ryheim Scott, choreographed by Edwards, took us deep beneath the waves, with two stranded characters forming a contentious bond to try and reach the surface of the water. It was a wild and impressively graceful performance, strengthened further by the chemistry between Edwards and Scott. That said, it could have benefited from a more memorable ending.

Solo pieces did not always hit home. Petite Garcon Fleur, choreographed and performed by Nathan Lafayette incorporated an opera-singing sunflower puppet as a metaphor for talent that starts off fresh and disarmingly funny but quickly grows twee and condescending; which lets down its clearly talented performer.

A similar predicament befalls Thomas Page’s Commonality (Extract). Choreographed and performed by Page, the full piece, according to the show’s programme, takes the audience through five universal emotional states - but this excerpt shows us just one - loneliness, and its impact. The resulting performance, whilst skilful and imbued with a luminous fragility by Page, feels one note and ultimately falls a bit flat.

My highlights of the night consisted of two of the companies of young dancers, The Movement Initiative and Step to Dance, who performed complex sets - untitled and S.2.C, respectively - with an effortless buoyancy and coordination. The enthusiasm and focus radiating from the dancers as they commanded the stage was infectious and impressive, and there was real power and skill behind their movements.

The sound design also suffered at times, with music that sounded oddly loud and hollow. The most egregious example of this was in the penultimate piece, a solo routine called Take a Moment choreographed and performed by Jamaal O’Driscoll. O’Driscoll used precise, slow break dance to create something both sultry and sharp, but the effect was hampered by a screeching shrill brass in the music.

The evening ended on a bang - with a remixed reprise of Body Politic’s own 2015 show Breezeblocks. Set to the menacingly beautiful Alt-J song by the same name, Breezeblocks gives us a frenetic yet controlled conversation between the dancers. As the song slides from a sombre, calculating opening to its desperate, haunting chorus, dancers move in a slickly choreographed ensemble, spar in pairs, then dart across the stage at varying speeds - from sprinting to slo-mo.

Before this final performance, we are given a video introduction, giving us a look at the making of the original piece as well as the remix. I couldn’t help but think about how useful it would have been if every piece was given the same treatment. A border of context and a chance to set the mood would have improved my experience of the overall showcase massively - particularly with two of the solo pieces and the duet, which were all excerpts of longer performances.

But these issues ultimately did not deflate the majesty of theDECADE, which was a captivating and moving evening well worth the ticket price. What was also abundantly clear was how much dance had enriched the participants' lives, and how needed and appreciated Body Politic had been as an entry point.

In the post-show Q&A, Ajaye Hunn-Phillips, a personal trainer and longtime collaborator of Grieg’s, was asked what she thought the importance of collaboration was in art. She replied that if you think about the happiest memories in your life - the trip you took to the seaside, or a vacation abroad, etc - they are almost always shared with other people. That shared experience is what makes the memory special. Collaboration allows all participants a bright new lens through which to see the world.

Her answer could practically serve as a mission statement for Body Politic, and this kind hearted, vibrant showcase.