SATURDAY night means talent night on weekend after weekend of formulaic British television.

Thankfully, The Talent at the Grand Opera House last Saturday was a breath of fresh air by comparison.

BalletBoyz duo Michael Nunn and William Trevitt have left behind their own dancing days (they finished at the York theatre last year incidentally) to promote young dancers from disparate backgrounds but all of them male, while also issuing an open call to find “the next big choreographer”.

Co-artistic directors Nunn and Trevitt have done a wonderful job in coaching and mentoring the eight dancers who make up The Talent company, and you can see the enjoyment they in turn are experiencing from being given this chance to mature into top-class artists.

From tattoos to body shapes that speak of the street rather than classical codpiece ballet construction, the company has the look of now about it, as exciting as Pheonix Dance were when they first emerged from Harehills, Leeds, also as an all-male company.

Taylor Benjamin, Luke Divall, Miguel Esteves, Adam Kirkham, Anthony Middleton, Edward Pearce, Leon Poulton and Matthew Rees (who had no formal training before joining the company) bring boundless energy to three pieces that combine ensemble endurance with individual flair.

Russell Maliphant’s Torsion has been re-worked by Nunn and Trevitt from a duet to a piece for six dancers that has exhilarating momentum, gravity and grace, while Paul Roberts’s Alpha, danced to Keaton Henson’s acoustic, guitar-strummed songs, plays on male physicality and strength contrasting with the humility of submission, a sensuous interplay more often associated with male and female dance partners.

From 160 applications, Nunn and Trevitt chose young Prague choreographer Jarek Cemerek’s Void for the show’s premiere, and it is a thrilling ensemble piece that is frenzied yet precise, leaving the dancers exhausted.

No wonder they crash to the floor at the end, nothing left to give.