Now the Arts Council has clipped the wings of Leeds-based Phoenix Dance, perhaps some cash could be invested in a new company to harness the considerable talents of these students.

Graduates from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance work with leading contemporary companies across the world and there are several dancers in this year's crop who could easily slot into Rambert. Disciplined, focused, and with plenty of stagecraft savvy, these 18-to 21-year-olds perform with such maturity that you could be watching professionals.

This three-hour marathon sported four premieres and two reprises of works from a clutch of important choreographers, including Mark Baldwin, Bernadette Iglich and award-winning Jamie Watton.

It all became a bit of a blur towards the end but the opener, Sorrowful Songs, from the excellent John Carney left a huge impression. In the same way composer John Tavener captures the essence of Greek Orthodoxy in his music, Carney evokes the heart of Judaism in his choreography, augmenting this hugely moving portrayal of mourners at the Crucifixion with traditional Jewish circle dances set to the soaring strains of Gorecki's Third Symphony.

The first years tackled this numinous creation with great solemnity, the 12 dancers like a Greek chorus, sweeping the stage in shadowy grey. Lit in a gold halo, Christ - sensitively portrayed by Belgian student Frederic Claudel - descended with arms outstretched on his wooden yoke to dance a testing solo that seemed to encapsulate the stages of the cross in his stumbling agony. Carney sculpted his groups of dancers into a final tableau, with Christ's body cradled in loving arms.

There was a riot when Nijinsky put steps to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in 1913. Happily, there were roars of approval for Baldwin's version, made with the students last year. This time a tribe of men and 15 maidens in denim jackets stomp out the ritual rhythms. The primal violence is all there but it has a fresh, modern feel. Burmese student Jeong Choi danced with an earthy, desperate acceptance as the sacrificial victim while Jamaican Kofi Walker is a lyrical mover with huge promise for the future.

Iglich's new Void was a kaleidoscope of small gestures and bursts of Cunningham-like energy for the second years, while Hir, Watton's confrontational piece, had them on their toes like sparring partners, bobbing and weaving, trying to outdo each other with great style.