It's one of the truisms of the dance world that age doesn't pay. While other artforms value the accumulated knowledge of age, dance has an insatiable appetite for young bodies that can be flung and contorted. However, lately two companies have performed in London that value experience over pliability. Compagnie Ea Sola, a Vietnamese ensemble of women mostly over 70, performed in this year's Turning World Festival. Their show was an astonishing accomplishment; every move was a record of a life, conveying emotional depth that younger dancers have little access to. More recently Green Candle, performed Tales from the Citadel at Dance Umbrella. This was essentially a protest piece on ageism in the guise of storytelling.

Why should they stop performing just when they have become masters of their art? Why can't the public appreciate the beauty of age? But, whereas Ea Sola produced an accomplished piece of theatre in its own right, Green Candle became so entangled with their message that the power of their show was all but lost. This was preaching to the converted and almost suffocating them in the process. We don't need to be told that there's beauty in older movement, we need to see it. A shame, especially when one of the dancers was Jane Dudley, an octogenarian of exquisite poise and grace.