The opening work of the night, the warmly lyrical Fingerprint to early JS Bach keyboard music, seemed to sum up the essence of Alston's accessibility as still one of our leading contemporary choreographers, if not one one who is obsessively brandishing the British cutting edge.

But by the end of the evening he had made it evident that the true breadth of his best show programming has to include something of his age-old passion.

He told the audience at the pre-show talk that his new work, Shuffle It Right, used Hoagy Carmichael's own live recordings of rehearsal and individual performances of his own songs directly in nostalgic response to Alston's memory of listening to his father's 78s at home when a lad.

It's not Alston's first jazz piece, but it demonstrates his easy and natural reaction to the material that effortlessly distills our own universal reaction to its dancing, multi-dimensional rhythmic appeal. And it left the fan feeling that some sort of jazz element is required content in a typical Alston evening line-up.

I can remember one previous tour visit to Brighton when I left the building clouded over by a growing melancholy and it was an evening that contained neither any of his jazz, nor any world music setting, for example his Gypsy Mixture.

Shuffle It Right closed proceedings and suddenly the scene changed to men, uniform in light-shaded shirts and trousers, ties tucked away inside the front buttons and - a rare departure from Alston's customary barefoot dancing - in socks. And the girls (five, as there were of men) were in varied, colourful sleeveless, A-line 40s-style dresses in modern-material.

They appeared in various pairings and ensembles to Carmichael's Riverboat Shuffle (a loose Hoagy run-through, tape rolling, in which the dancers humourously reflected his stops and mistakes), March of the Hoodlums, Drip Drop, Billy-a-Dick, No More Toujours L'Amour, Old Man Harlem, Don't Forget To Say "No" Baby, and Star Dust.

As a touching closer, the German, Anneli Binder was cast solo to dance Stardust, the only all-instumental item, which distilled the whole thing without pretension, and left a delicately understated and unsentimental air of elegy.

Fingerprint's action is about the departure of Bach's brother Jakob, for good in reality, but to return gratefully to the family fold in Alston's happier scenario. Nine dancers, all in light trousers, men in various shiny waistcoats, girls in richly dark, silky, halter-necked, backless camisoles. The inclusion on stage of immaculate pianist Jason Ridgway in this and the following Nigredo created an extra dimension of live inter-action.

Nigredo, shorter, was Alston not picking music to choreograp but the composer Simon Holt picking him to choreograph a modern solo piano work which depicts the charred, blackened point in alchemy when base metal, purportedly on its way to gold, awaits new form. And its human equivalent is the stress on a journey towards depair, after which emerges new resolve and strength to face the future.

This was the newest, most unfamiliar music of the evening but the most stimulating visually, with richer lighting devised at the Dome last year by Peter Todd. Jonathan Goddard and Rose Sidworth intertwine inextricably and a second couple, Pierre Tapon and Binder, arrive to interact, all in unisex costumes of dark cobweb tops and trunks.

Goddard becomes the focal individual in crisis and here comes Alston's only technical problem of the evening. The anguished dancer comes to rest on the floor, deserted, alone, the lighting falling to minimal.

The audience thinks the piece is suddenly over. Applause breaks the spell but the music re-emerges, the dancer rises, renewed. However, according to the score, he can do so but briefly (little developmental scope here for Alston), because the real close comes hard on the heels of the mistaken one.

A sense of slight bemusement and annoyance. A matter, maybe, for choreographer and lighting man to sort out.

This shorter piece is followed by another brief one by Alston's dancer-turned choreographer Martin Lawrance. The sound changes to Latin American on an accordian. Three movements of Japanese artiste Ayou's Eurasian Tango accompany Brink which inject sudden pace and sweep to the evening with dancers darting and flashing around the stage.

More of the simple tops, trousers and female trunks - dourer, but so as not to obscure the exciting rhythms of the tango world of sound and suggestion, which now mesmerises East as well as West, northern hemisphere as well as southern, TV as well as bar, club or stage.

This show delivers wholly and it is never less than beautiful - another Alston trademark.

Now add one other new dimension of a RADC night. A commonly acknowledged outstanding dancer. Alston's companies have classy performers within what is obviously and deliberately still a starless team.

But Jonathan Goddard in the last six months has been recognised nationally for his versatility and verve, inspirational individual movement. He this year became the first contemporary artist to be Dancer of the Year and he also nominated for the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, only to be pipped by the Royal Ballet's revival of Balanchine's Jewels.

Goddard has caught the eye in the recent years of his six with RADC. The awards and press recognition, as one would expect, have added to him even more confidence. His stage presence was always warm and strong but Alston is now giving him even more freedom and responsibility.

And Alston predicts that the next Goddard will be his Frenchman, Pierre Tapon, whose solo to Carmichael's Billy-a-Dick showed what Alston meant.

The tour visit concludes tonight (Thursday, April 3)

Click here for exclusive interview with Jonathan Goddard