Five dancers rehearse a revival of Martha Graham's Primitive Mysteries, a notoriously difficult and demanding work. We follow the physical agonies they go through, the mental stress of trying to reach Graham's high standards and, for some, the hope to get into her company on a full-time basis, their personal problems and their relationships with each other.
It's a variation on the timeless theme of people under stress in a claustrophobic situation, with the added frisson of glimpses of a dance genius through the characters' eyes, but the problem is that the cast don't convince as dancers. Not that they have to dance - except for one very short piece which is repeated on a number of occasions - but there is a dancers's body language which is missing, a bodily tension which we see even in sketching out moves and in warm-ups. These are obviously actors, not dancers.
As for the play itself, it is a little unfocused, with our attention being switched from dancing concerns to relationships in the cast to personal problems. This lack of focus means that dramatic tension is not sustained.