Audiences at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre have already caught tantalising glimpses of what distinguishes the three choreographers who feature in the Made at Sadler's Wells programme opening there tonight.

Earlier this year, Russell Maliphant's ongoing dialogue with light and darkness played out on the impressive bodies of those BalletBoyz: The Talent dancers and, even more memorably, weeks later, on the limbs of the inimitable Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta.

Soon after, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Sutra - in which monks from the Shaolin Temple melded their martial arts skills with contemporary movement - brought cheers and standing ovations from crowded houses at the Festival Theatre.

As for Wayne McGregor, even though it's a couple of years since his Random Dance company wowed Edinburgh audiences with FAR, there's no chance those who saw that work will have forgotten its impact.

So, given that all three choreographers have standalone appeal, why has London's Sadler's Well brought them together in a triple-decker showcase?

Dawn Prentice, the Sadler's Wells tour director, is happy to sketch in the background to the project - the associate artist programme the theatre has been operating with enviable results. It embraces commissioning new works, producing existing projects, touring work within the UK and abroad, forging connections with other organisations - much of it the admin stuff that trips up the aspirations of small, and not-so-small companies. Few venues anywhere in the world have the contact book, or the clout, that Sadler's Wells can lay claim to.

The three choreographers represented in the Made At... programme are just part of a group that includes Matthew Bourne, Akram Khan and Hofesh Shechter, alongside JonziD and Kate Prince, both of whom are dynamic, game-changing forces on the hip-hop and contemporary dance scene. It's a visionary association of dance-makers, lighting designers, composers and musicians that links individual artists and companies into the global network that Sadler's Wells has built up over the past 15 years since the London venue was rebuilt.

"We are celebrating that anniversary right now," says Prentice. "And realising how lucky we are to have the resources - the finances, as well as the expertise - to do what we do."

Increasingly, that means looking to share the results with venues outside London.

"Our choreographers felt their work wasn't really being seen across the UK. Wayne, Larbi and Russell are three of our best contemporary talents and probably take their work abroad more than they take it to other theatres in Britain.

"We looked at how we could put something together that would not only showcase their choreography, but also give a top quality, enjoyable experience for audiences who don't go to contemporary dance every week. It brought home to us how London audiences are spoiled for choice."

Prentice produced the Sutra tour and saw how the Festival Theatre audiences responded. "I hope this triple bill ticks some of the same boxes for them," she says, adding that each piece is being danced by members of the choreographer's own company.

"I think that makes it really special," she says. "Each dancer knows not just the steps, but the whole language of their choreographer. They understand how the piece was created, how it should be performed. Audiences will see just how very different the styles are - so it becomes like a living sampler of today's contemporary dance."

Both Maliphant's Afterlight (Part One) and Cherkaoui's Faun nod to a dance legend of the past: Nijinsky. Maliphant, working with his long-time lighting designer Michael Hulls, has drawn inspiration from Nijinsky's own drawings for a solo while Faun is a reinvention (for two dancers) of Nijinsky's L'apres-midi d'un faune that adds music by Nitin Sawney to the original Debussy.

If these pieces hint at the kind of creative collaborations that are encouraged by the Sadler's Wells associate programme, then Wayne McGregor's full company tour-de-force, UNDANCE, sums up the spirit of that endeavour with boldness and brilliance.

Turner prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger and acclaimed contemporary composer Mark-Anthony Turnage joined forces with McGregor in a collaborative process that had the work of American artist Richard Serra and pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge as springboards for creative interaction. First seen at Sadler's Wells in 2011, and an instant hit with audiences, UNDANCE sets the seal on what this Made At Sadler's Wells triple bill hopes to achieve: namely to bring more people into its dance loop by taking the cream of its choreographers to them.

Made At Sadler's Wells is at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre tonight and tomorrow