PHOENIX Dance Theatre is regarded as one of the most daring and exciting outfits in the UK.

Next Tuesday and Wednesday (December 1-2, 8pm), the dynamic dancers cross the Pennines to Lancaster Arts at Lancaster University to premiere two new dance works by choreographers Sharon Watson and Caroline Finn alongside a double bill by Christopher Bruce CBE. The works are presented as part of PDT's Mixed Programme staged at the university's excellent Nuffield Theatre.

Sharon - PDT's artistic director and one of the most respected figures in dance - follows up her audience favourites Melt (2011) and Repetition of Change (2013) with TearFall, a piece that explores both the science and emotion of tears. Supported by the Wellcome Trust, TearFall was inspired by the exploration of the biochemical make up of tears, how their appearance and composition is affected by different emotional states and looks at the differences between how tears function and how they are perceived. For TearFall, she worked in partnership with Professor Sir John Holman of York University and dramaturg Lou Cope.

In 2010, Sharon was named as one of the Cultural Leadership Programme’s Women to Watch, a list of 50 influential women working in arts and culture in the UK selected by a distinguished panel made up of figures from the cultural and creative industries. She is a trustee of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures; The Place; West Yorkshire Playhouse, and an artistic advisor for Central School of Ballet and Leeds Inspired.

The second piece, Bloom, by New Adventures Choreographer Award winner Caroline, is set to an eclectic contemporary soundtrack, and an examination of how people create ‘facades,’ behind which they can become the person they believe they should be. The title was inspired by the idea that a tree in blossom - a beautiful layer – only masks the true nature of the tree beneath. Her work often presents darkly comic expressions of life and humanity using a playful, quirky and highly engaging choreographic style.

The first of Christopher Bruce's pieces is Shadows, a brand new work created especially for Phoenix Dance Theatre; his other is a restaging of the renowned choreographer’s energetic study of life in the 1940s, Shift.

From small beginnings in inner-city Leeds, Phoenix Dance Theatre has grown to be one of the UKs leading contemporary dance companies. For more than three decades it has performed, educated and inspired people across the globe regularly collaborating with international artists.

Lancaster Arts box office 01524-594151 or www.lancasterarts.org.