A fantastic choice of contemporary dance by cutting-edge companies and choreographers hits Battersea Arts

Centre this week, writes Yvonne Gordon.

Tonight Prised Open presents F-STOP at 8pm, inspired by Samuel Becketts short stories. The nature of time and the nuances of human nature are explored. Tickets are £9 and £6 for concessions.

Also tonight at 7.30pm, there is an evocative double-bill with Dioden Dance presenting Surge, a raw, intense piece about instinct and choices.

In the second half, AbZorb explores themes through dance, film and music with particular reference to Fritz Langs silent epic, Metropolis (pictured). Tickets are £7, £5 concessions.

From tomorrow until Sunday (November 16 to November 18) at 8.30pm another double-bill features the Fleur Darkin dance company with Stories, an interpretation of bodies in love.

Vitamin G perform Candyland: Episode 1, the Backpack Alliance, a thought-provoking production. Tickets are £8, £6, concessions.

Also on Friday at 8pm, h2dance present Ostrich, which combines dynamic movement with music, text and humour dealing with fear.

In Girls and Dogs, Livebait dancers theatrically express a woman clinging to the earth as it spins, and an electric hormone storm. Tickets cost £9, £6 concessions.

On Saturday (November 17) Air Dance Company shows This Is Modern at 8pm, a series of improbable truths and lies about dance and history. Tickets are £9, £6, concessions.

Four Solos on Sunday (November 18) at 8pm is a fabulous array of styles. In Invincible Invisible, Bi Ma Dance Company celebrates dance with elements of martial arts.

Carol Brown researches into the architecture of movement in Sleeping In Public, while Sioned Huws performs solo in Forgett, which looks at the body in space.

Finally, Robert Hylton combines street and contemporary dance with the skills of a beat-poet, jazz musician and dancer in one. Tickets, £9, £6, concessions. On Saturday, there are dance workshops by Sean King at 2pm and Carol Brown at 4pm, which explore the boundary between text and movement.

Guy Dartnell gives a session on Sunday from 2pm to 5pm, fusing voice and motion. To book call 020 7326 8000. For other detils call 020 8871 8711.