TWO years ago, the teaser was “can you DIG it?” where that acronym in capital letters stood for Dance International Glasgow. Clearly audiences did dig the roster of events -– live performances, film screenings, workshops and exhibitions – that took place not just at Tramway, but at other locations across the city. We know this, because Tim Nunn, programme manager at Tramway and the full-on driving force behind DIG, has the facts and figures that prove DIG 2015 was an initiative worth revisiting. Indeed another, equally varied, programme of work, featuring a similarly impressive clutch of performers from across the UK and beyond, kicks off on Friday April 21 and runs for a full four weeks until Saturday May 21.

For Nunn, part of what made DIG 2015’s success especially encouraging was not simply the numbers who turned out, but who those individuals were.

“When we did all the evaluations, looked at all the feedback after 2015, we discovered that nearly 20% of the people who had come to see the shows at Tramway had never been to any sort of dance production, ever. And that wasn’t just to do with dance at Tramway, these people had never watched dance anywhere. And they’d had a good time.”

The smile on his face says it all: that kind of validating research is a game-changer, an affirmation of Nunn’s abiding conviction that there is an audience for dance in Glasgow, particularly if you offer them an interesting range of choices across the art form.

DIG 2017 not only has choice written into its DNA, the works on offer are helpfully tagged with a category-hint: “Young Moves” indicates a show that’s suitable for young adults, “Current Moves” indicates there are topical themes in the performance, and “Funny”, well, guess what? Some dance-makers have a sense of humour that comes on-stage with them. Nunn says it’s basically “stand up dance”, and the likes of Meg Stuart and Tim Etchells (with Shown and Told) or Frauke Requardt (in Mothers) tick the kind of boxes that make you want to laugh out loud, because it’s comedy in motion or – as in Mothers – in a lot of very sticky mess.

Nunn says that he has certain criteria that influence his programming decisions. “If it can make me laugh, or cry, or later make me feel I could write a book about it, that is an ideal show for me. And I think we’ve got a fair bit of that this year.”

He could actually be describing the production that rounds off DIG in May. It’s called Out Of This World, it is created by Mark Murphy for his company VTOL and is currently in the last week of rehearsals before it premieres at one of its commissioning venues, the MacRobert Arts Centre, Stirling on Friday, April 21. Thereafter it tours across the UK before arriving at Tramway for DIG.

Murphy’s own view of what he’d like Out Of This World to achieve on-stage is as follows.

“I want the audience to be barely able to breathe, I want them to have the time of their lives. I want them to be on the edge of their seats, not just because of the aerial work, but because of the story. I want them to be totally caught up in it, but then, afterwards, to be thinking about what this woman, Ellen, has gone through, and the decisions she’s had to make. Even if you’ve never been in the exact same situation as Ellen, her core dilemma is a one of those painful questions many people have to face: how far will you go to be with the one you love? In Ellen’s case, it becomes a matter of life or death – and it is sad. I never realised until now, when we’re pulling it together on-stage, what a truly sad, tender, affecting love story it is.”

Murphy genuinely sounds surprised by this. He’s lived with the ideas behind the piece for some six or seven years, putting it on the back burner while carving out a high-profile career as a maker of stadium-sized spectaculars across the globe. He was also the brains behind Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony which boasted a cast of 1500, including Kylie Minogue. Inbetween times, however, he would go back to writing the script for Out Of This World and mulling over how to integrate the desired elements of choreography, film projection, music and aerial work into a piece that would resonate on a visual, emotional and intellectual level.

“I wanted to create this world where we witness what’s going on in some-one’s mind,” he says. That mind belongs to Ellen, a young woman who’s survived a serious car crash, but is now in a medically induced coma – ostensibly a kind of limbo, but with her thoughts and her imagination racing as she pieces together memories of her past life, her current relationship and an increasing awareness of what is going on around her. Let’s avoid plot spoilers, but it’s safe to say that for Ellen this car crash has visited heart-ache, loss and grief on her present and her future.

“She has to let go,” says Murphy. “and accept what can’t be changed. That’s what draws us in to her narrative, makes us care, wonder how we’d cope.”

Of late, it looked as if Murphy had let go of his own original company, VTOL, and shifted into theatre and film-making, and working on large-scale outdoor events. Let’s say that, not unlike Ellen, VTOL was in a state of stasis from 2001 until now. It’s back in action again for Out Of This World because Murphy wanted the entire project to have his creative stamp on it.

“In a way,” he says, “it’s a show that I felt only I could make.” He laughs, knowing this maybe sounds cocky and big-headed. While he has unshakeable trust in his team – many of them having worked with him before – he needed to be hands-on wherever possible, using all the craft and skills acquired on other other people’s shows.

“I’ve been seeing it like a film in my head for quite a while now," he says. “I knew how I wanted every detail to look, sound, and how I wanted the aerial moments to work. They’re tied into the life-saving medical procedures, the sense of Ellen’s mind going into free-fall or swimming towards consciousness, and they have to be dramatic and thrilling. Not because anybody is doing slick tricks, but because of where the story is taking Ellen.”

Not that actor and musician Sarah Swire was aware, when she signed up for the role, that the story would make her airborne. Aerial skills weren’t part of her training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, but watching her during rehearsals, you’d never know she was out of her comfort zone. “Actually, only one of the five members of the cast had any previous aerial experience,” says Murphy, “but in a way that’s kept it kind of real. And I think they’re enjoying it now.”

Back at Tramway, Tim Nunn is happy to outline what audiences can enjoy across the opening weekend of DIG.

“If people turn up early, they can dip into two free events. There is a new performance installation by Siobhan Davies Dance, and Under the Skin, which features works from Scottish Ballet’s innovative Digital Season. There’s another first from the company with the world premiere of a new commission, Each Other, from choreographic duo Ivgi and Greben. I was chatting to them during a break in rehearsals and they said 'Whatever Scottish Ballet do normally, we’re the black against that white!', so even before we get to Liz Aggiss with her take on Slap and Tickle, I think we’re in for some bold, exciting work.”

That hint of "expect the unexpected" seems to hold true for the rest of DIG. Velvet Petal, Scottish Dance Theatre’s vivid exploration of what we see – or think we see – around us brings together such unlikely bedfellows as Monarch butterflies and Robert Mapplethorpe’s photography, setting what emerges in moments of interaction to a mighty dance-punk score.

Compelling music, composed by Elena Kats-Chernin and played live, by The Smith Quartet, underpins the virtuoso moves by two dazzling male performers in Material Men redux. It is quite some time since Shobana Jeyasingh Dance was seen in Glasgow: this piece, with its dynamic use of two very different dance styles – one classical Indian and the other hip hop – is a reminder of how Jeyasingh can weave history and social mores into thrilling choreography. Evocative soundscapes, ingenious costumes and the character – mythic and actual – of horses in our culture form part of Oceanallover’s outdoor performance, Sea Hames. Don’t worry if you can’t get to Neilston or Barrhead for performances, it’s at Tramway during Family Day on May 14.

“There is still, I think, a perception among many people” says Nunn, “that if you come to watch dance, you’re going to see bodies in leotards, making shapes and being very 'abstract'. That still might happen, but what DIG 2017 has in its programme are shows that are funny, shows that are deeply and evidently personal and are all about a direct communication with an audience as fellow human beings. I know it’s that hackneyed old cliche, but I really think we’ve managed to bring in something for everyone.”

DIG 2017 opens at Tramway, Glasgow on Friday April 21.

Full programme details at www.DIGlasgow.com

The premiere of Mark Murphy’s VTOL production, Out Of This World, is at the MacRobert Arts Centre, Stirling on Friday April 21 tour details at www.outofthisworldtour.co.uk