PHOENIX Dance Theatre is to work again with interactive digital media artist Kit Monkman, of York company KMA.

The Leeds dance company first collaborated with KMA in May 2005 for former artistic director Darshan Singh Bhuller’s Enger-land, a parody of a typical 21st century English night out that utilised KMA’s imagery of a “cartoon world of clichés” on giant screens.

The new dance piece is at present an open book, although it will definitely involve composer Ken Hesketh and Psappha, an ensemble of six contemporary musicians from Manchester (who are the official University of Salford MediaCityUK Ensemble to boot).

“The piece will emerge for its premiere at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in February 2013,” says Phoenix artistic director Sharon Watson.

“The challenge to Kit is that I’ve asked him to put some ideas on the table as interactive performance is his area of expertise, and I really want to push the boundaries of Phoenix working with live music. Trying to present something truly 3D is the aim.”

Singing Kit’s praises, Sharon says: “He’s already helped to transfer dance visually, that whole thing of screen projections, digital and interactive media. I know he’s up for our challenge”

In the meantime, Phoenix gives the final performances of its 30th birthday mixed programme, Reflected, at York Theatre Royal tonight and tomorrow at 7.30pm.

“The tour has gone amazingly well; the show has been well received by young, old and new audiences alike,” says Sharon. “I’ve always said that Phoenix has to offer something that appeals to everyone but not the same old, same old, and Reflected does exactly that.”

Premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in January last year, Reflected was the first mixed programme to be assembled by Sharon after Phoenix moved into the £12 million new home it shares with Northern Ballet in Quarry Hill.

“Putting a programme together is like a menu, trying to get the right ingredients, and so far, so good,” says Sharon. “I think we have tried-and-trusted methods in terms of what our dancers can do, so some of the works are old and some of them are new or new to us.”

Sharon’s own piece, the ensemble routine Melt, receives its premiere, utilising interlinking rope work and pulsating, nocturnal music from Lake District and Leeds band Wild Beasts.

Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer’s tongue-in-cheek twist on Adam and Eve is the show’s revived piece, while Switch is the first work for Phoenix by Ballett Basel artistic director Richard Wherlock.

Philip Taylor’s What It Is, a relationship drama of the three-into-two-won’t-go kind, is danced to two Amy Winehouse songs.

“It’s not a new piece but new to our dancers, and we chose it before what happened so tragically last year, but Amy is edgy and poignant, like the dance, and her music is so vibrant, like Phoenix.”

Looking ahead, Phoenix will return to the Theatre Royal with Crossing Points on November 20 and 21, when the mixed programme will include the premiere of former member Ana Sanchez’s Catch.

You should catch Phoenix first, however, in Reflected. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk