Arts: Dancers follow where the music leads them.

Byline: RICHARD ALSTON

T'S quite an amazing feat in these hard-nosed days of commercialism in the arts to keep a dance company going for 10 years. It's a trick choreographer Richard Alston has managed quite magnificently.

So what did the company do on its tenth anniversary? 'We were in Edinburgh at the time and we just went for a drink,' he reports.

It seemed a remarkably low-key celebration for a company now reckoned to be one of Britain's finest.

It arrives in Liverpool today for a two-night run at the Liverpool Playhouse, the third consecutive year it has taken to the Playhouse stage.

Alston has been one of contemporary dance's leading lights for many years, a position consolidated when he was choreographer for Ballet Rambert and then its artistic director between 1986 and 1992.

It was in late 1994 that he took a gamble and created his own company, naming it - not unnaturally - the Richard Alston Dance Company.

So was it tougher to run his own company with all that that implies than to be a mere employee? 'Actually it's easier,' he says. 'We are properly funded, I have people to handle the administration and we have our own base in London at The Place.'

It has left him free to choreograph for his company.

He has a 10-strong group of dancers and has kept the same team together for three years. 'They are in very good shape. They have just been dancing at Sadlers Wells and are coming straight to Liverpool from that.'

His usual working system is to find some music and then work with the dancers to create the dance piece he has in mind. Having the same team means that he knows their strengths and can choreograph with particular dancers in mind.

There is a lot of touring on different stages. The company takes its own floor with them, although most of the older stages - like the Playhouse - are properly sprung for dancers. It's often the newer venues that prove the most difficult, Alston says.

Alston is bringing three dance pieces to Liverpool, all his own work. The newest piece is Gypsy Mixture, just a month old and likely to be star turn in Liverpool. As usual it was the music which came first.

'I had read a review of this album Electric Gypsyland and it sounded interesting. So when the company was in Sheffield I went to a record store and bought a copy.'

It's a collection of Balkan gypsy music remixed by different DJs and producers across the world. It's a vibrant sound, often mixing Chilean brass bands and Romanian music to create a sort of samba.

To preserve his dances for posterity they are all filmed and kept in store. But oddly enough, the company has yet to appear on a commercial DVD. That's likely to be changed in the year when the company releases a DVD titled Overdrive.

Alston is delighted to be back at the Playhouse. It's not one of the largest theatres 'but it is warm and intimate and very close to the audience. We like it. RICHARD ALSTON Dance Company is at the Liverpool Playhouse tonight and tomorrow

CAPTION(S):

Richard Alston