Now in its 30th anniversary year, Phoenix can look back with pride on the huge strides it has made in that time. The range and variety of its work was amply mirrored in the four-part programme it brought to York this week, under the apt title Reflected.

Originally a small group of male dancers from Chapeltown, it now shares purpose-built quarters in Quarry Hill, Leeds with Northern Ballet. Nearly half its core dancers were born outside this country, making it a force to reckon with internationally.

An eclectic choice of contemporary music flavoured Tuesday’s programme. Switch (2010), choreographed by Richard Wherlock, made excellent use of a strongly percussive score by Swiss composer Beat Frei, alias B.free. Mechanistic movements unfolded like clockwork, as if the dancers were unable to resist the music’s momentum.

Two songs from Amy Winehouse’s debut album Frank underlay Philip Taylor’s What It Is, where three dancers touchingly explored various relationships before going their separate ways, products of alienation. Michael Mannon’s lighting squares enhanced the narrative.

The only live music came in Pave Up Paradise, a witty Adam-and-Eve spoof, where Alessandro Lima’s on-stage guitar and vocals lent poignancy to Azzurra Ardovini and Josh Wille’s wry discovery of the birds and the bees, apple and all.

Artistic director Sharon Watson’s Melt was a riveting piece of circus, where two long ropes with attached loops, suspended above target-rings, enabled infinite permutations of swinging gymnastics.

New Age-inspired soft rock by Leeds-based band Wild Beasts provided essential focus. Here especially, but throughout the evening, the seven dancers showed stunning – and boundless - athleticism.

Phoenix has become an essential part of the weft and warp of Yorkshire’s thriving artistic scene. It is impossible to imagine life without it. Here’s to the next 30 years!