Henri Oguike, Wilde Theatre, Bracknell

A healthy dose of courage is needed if a choreographer takes on a subject already tackled by the redoubtable Mark Morris. And Dido and Aeneas isn't just any old Morris piece; it's one of his masterworks, as production and performance: long, big-scale, tumultuous, impassioned. Henri Oguike's Dido & Aeneas (note the differentiating ampersand) is none of those things; it lasts only 40 minutes, his company consists of just six dancers, and he isn't always convincing as a story-teller.

Even so, his Dido had an enthusiastic reception from the largely young audience who attended its premiere on Wednesday at the Wilde Theatre, Bracknell. I wouldn't want to write it off, but what I missed most was relationships among the characters. Oguike can do relationships, as manifested in his abstract ballet Front Line, which was revived especially to open this programme.

There, Shostakovich's ninth quartet, played on stage by the Pavao Quartet, provokes Oguike to create patterns of alternating anger, despair and calm. The recorded extracts from Purcell's opera in the new work inspire more subdued illustration at first; for me the movement did not become vivid until the parting of the lovers, when Sarah Storer's cool, fair-haired Dido and Nuno Silva's tall, aggressively elegant Aeneas act out their feelings simultaneously but separately.

How do you cope in dance with the score's best known highlight, Dido's lament "When I am laid in earth". Imaginatively, Oguike lets Purcell take over entirely, while his heroine simply lies face down and the others stand still. It works powerfully – but a cynic might suggest that it raises doubt about the suitability of music and theme for this choreographer's purposes. No scenery but handsome costumes by Elizabeth Baker. Some of Guy Hoare's lighting design could do with rethinking (for example where Dido put Belinda's face completely into shadow).

Still, Dido provides an ambitious centre-piece for a varied and rewarding programme. Another premiere ends the bill, with the succinct but apt title "Finale". This is set to tracks by Rene Aubrey, and although the music's lively dance rhythms all sounded much of a muchness, Oguike has given each of the five or six sections its own mood.

His dances, here and in Front Line, have their own voice. Maybe certain movements do tend to recur: a series of hopping skippy jumps, for instance, or a sudden upward thrust of the arms. But he sets these against a distinctive use of simple, often heavy, quietly forceful poses.

He composes his dances with a keen ear for the music, too, and his cast (half of whom are new this season) respond alertly. The two men have been around longest, and make much of their roles, while small, dark-haired Charlotte Eatock shows an attractive liveliness, also an interesting depth of feeling in the Shostakovich ballet.

Oguike himself customarily dances one shortish number on each bill, and the solo he gave this time, "F.P.S". (Frames per second) used a richer vocabulary and more animation than I have seen from him before.

Just one complaint about the programme notes: they really ought to identify which dancer is doing what role in Dido; an alphabetical list is not very helpful here. And I think the recording chosen for that work is worth identifying. Easy to rectify, and Oguike's work deserves every detail of presentation to be right.

Touring to 12 April