Rosas, Bartók/ Mikrokosmos, Sadler's Wells

Sometimes, watching contemporary dance, you feel that no choreographer has ever known a happy moment – such angst, such grief, such terrible agony rolls over the footlights out to the audience that arriving at the theatre feeling mildly content can seem like an act of subversion. On their last night of this too-short season, however, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Rosas company produced one of her most joyous and enjoyable pieces. For as the choreographer reminds us here, joy, cheerfulness and even sheer good temper are also emotions, and also worth exploring.

First, however, comes tenderness. The duet that opens the evening, to Bartók's Mikrokosmos, Seven Pieces for Two Pianos, starts with Jakub Truszkowski standing centre. Elizaveta Penkóva rushes on, flustered, late, and takes her place in front of him. In a gesture of infinite gentleness he puts his hands on her shoulders, only to turn her and thrust her behind him. She embraces him from behind, and too spins him away. Embrace, turn, thrust – de Keersmaeker runs through these gestures, and the emotions, in a riff that encompasses all the possibilities of a relationship.

Penkóva circles the stage, little rushes of freedom, to be pulled back by Truszkowsk's embrace. Then she, in turn, approaches, only to be rejected. Hard/soft, fast/slow, pleasure/irritation, joy/alienation – all the possibilities of relationships are there, performed with a serene insouciance in choreography of ferocious speed and daring.

A lull, and a shift to György Ligeti’s piano pieces, Monument/ Self-Portrait/ Movement, played impeccably by Jean-Luc Fafchamps and Stefan Ginsburgh, before the Duke Quartet take up their places to be fronted by another of de Keersmaeker’s quartets of women (this time Tale Dolven, Penkóva, Taka Shamoto and Sue-Yeon Youn) for Bartók’s String Quartet No 4.

This is a return to her earlier style, ensemble work of great velocity and a fearless, hurtling drive, here constantly offset, undermined and counterpointed by sly glances, cheery interaction, a sense of convivial solidarity among the women. What is on display is not merely the choreography itself, but the underpinnings of a company, and of society – how do dancers interact, how do women work together, what is the dynamic in a group that requires great conformity, but permits great emotional freedom?

The swing and the thrust of de Keersmaeker’s steps – so forceful, so driven in Rosas danst Rosas and Fase – are here dotted with little grace notes that develop out of Bartók’s reliance on, and pleasure in, folk music and dance rhythms. The dense, lush sound world he creates in turn liberates de Keersmaeker, always the most musical of choreographers.

For de Keersmaeker, as always, form defines content. The form of Bartók/ Mikrokosmos is a series of linked social dances, whether the girls are snappily clicking their heels as they crisscross the stage creating their own private percussion section, turning upside down in handstands (and flashing white knickers as they do so) (pictured above), or performing a series of vertiginous, sinuously turning runs, feet stamping out the ends of phrases before switching to tippy-toed turns to match Bartók’s skittering strings and pizzicati gestures.

Bartók/ Mikrokosmos is one of de Keersmaeker’s most accessible works. How sad that with this single performance Rosas has finished its London season, but how thrilling a week it has been.

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• See what's on at Sadler's Wells 2011. Read Sadler's Wells show reviews

Watch Rosas in Bartok/ Mikrokosmos