CHOREOGRAPHER Botis Seva is no stranger to full-on accolades from audiences and critics alike. Moreover, the enthusiasm that now follows on the heels of his dance-making isn’t confined to his home turf in the UK. He’s also won prestigious competitions in Hannover, Germany and Copenhagen with his distinctive amalgam of movement styles and fresh perspectives on those styles. Seva brilliantly stretches the bedrock physicality of hip hop in unexpected directions, introduces contemporary dance and elements of physical theatre into the moment and in response to the music. In the end, it all comes together in choreography that is thrillingly stimulating and thoroughly watchable.

Fleur Darkin, artistic director at the Dundee-based Scottish Dance Theatre (SDT), felt the full impact of Seva’s vision in motion when – with her own company’s future repertoire in mind – she sat in on a 2016 showcase of works by new choreographers.

“I as good as fell off my chair from the intensity of one performance – dancers wide-eyed and surging with adrenaline to the urgent rhythm of a new idea of what dance can be,” she said. The piece was Reck, made by Botis Seva on his company Far From the Norm. Darkin promptly went into pursuit mode, and even though Seva is increasingly on many a director’s wish-list, she clinched a commission. Come the end of this week, audiences at Dundee Rep will have to cling onto their chairs when SDT premiere Seva’s new work, TutuMucky.

Would that be “tutu” as in ballet? And “mucky” as in grunge? There’s a rich chuckle, and Seva says: “That’s it, exactly!"

"For me, the tutu – and ballet – is classic dance. Hip hop – which is where I’m coming from, in my own background – is very raw. There are differences in energy, and in look, so when you bring these two things together, you can experiment and push the forms and maybe create something that moves like a kind of animal-creature, then look at elements of ballet technique – how would that creature dance those ballet moves? You’re looking to find where differences can meet, and at what can come out of that with a new language.”

If this sounds as if Seva is being playful and mischievous, there is nonetheless a serious – and profoundly personal – dimension to his rubbing of opposites together and harnessing the sparks and surprises. Before he discovered dance, at the comparatively late age of 15, Seva’s formative experiences had included hard knocks from the racist abuse he encountered as a young lad in East London.

“I don’t think I understood it fully at the time,” he says. “Why there could be such negativity towards some-one just because of their race? It’s like the way we’re looking at religion, now – as if it was bad for society. I grew up as a Christian and for me, that is a very positive thing. It does concern me, yes, how we can go forward and find ways to bring people, and ideas, into the same mix. These issues lie very deep in my heart, and also in my work. They come into the studio with me, they stay in my thoughts, even if what you’re going to see on-stage is in tutus.”

Going into the studio, engaging with ten dancers he’d never worked with before – some of whom he hadn’t even met – was, he says, “Scary. Genuinely terrifying."

"With my own company, I already have this feeling of a collective. They know me, know what I stand for and I know what they bring to the process. They know how personal my work is. Here, in Dundee, I had no idea if the dancers could actually connect in the same way to how I feel. You’re giving them ownership of something that is you – and that is very scary.”

So the first three days of his residency were spent in talking through his ideas, trying out moves, filming them and then sitting by himself, going through the videos. “All the ideas I’d had just went out of the window. I just looked at the dancers, watched how their bodies moved, then started thinking about different angles that would get us connecting. We’ll soon find out if that connects with audiences.”

Now aged just 25, Seva has, in the decade since he first fell unwittingly into dance, been tagged with the “one to watch” cachet that can open doors, but can pile on unhelpful pressure from funders, programmers, and even audiences.

“The attention is great when it means that I get to do what I do – but I’d say it can also be stressful.And It feels quite weird to get this kind of recognition, when I feel like I’m still in training. I’ve found a kind of language for now, but really it changes all the time. You hear a new piece of music – for me, music is where it all begins – and it gives you ideas. You see a new dancer and what they do is interesting. For me, it’s like I’m in a kid’s playground, just chasing and playing, and finding myself.”

Boris Seva’s TutuMucky is premiered as part of Scottish Dance Theatre’s double bill at Dundee Rep tomorrow [Friday, February 10] and on Saturday.

Tour details at www.scottishdancetheatre.com