Most of the faces among the audience show anticipation, but without knowing what to expect. We file into the theater in smoky darkness; there is just enough light to find our way to our seats.

Then, as though attending a classical music recital, complete silence falls as soon as the audience senses that something is stirring to herald the beginning of the performance. Within seconds, a voice rings out.

Hundreds have gathered to watch the Nan Jombang Dance Company's Sangketo Piriang Dalam Randai (The War of the Plates), which was presented as part of last week's Festival Nusantara at the Brisbane Powerhouse in Brisbane, Queensland.

The first few minutes of the first segment, Luluh/Surrender, performed by soloist Angga Djamar, are intensely captivating. Followed by a lone spotlight, the dancer moves, seemingly shrouded by immense darkness, as if the onstage vision was mere imagination. The only reminder of reality are the sounds made by Angga's feet shifting on the wooden floor and her shouts, alternating with two-note phrases of varying pitch and length.

We float yet again into the dreamlike world of unbounded images the dancer produces with her body contorting, folding, jumping then unfolding. It is a mesmerizing play of a changing, fluid form that mills, bobs, cartwheels and shifts against a black background.

The audience is then transported into the second piece, Ratok Piriang/Cry of the Plates, as the stage is quickly populated by three other dancers and the haunting vocal music multiplies.

There is less darkness here, and we gain the sensation of descending, then of becoming well and truly grounded. The seamless backwards and forwards flow in the dance from the traditional to the contemporary and back projects a fascination upon the entire audience, which seems to hold their collective breath lest the smallest sound upset the dance's configuration.

Segments from tari piring (plate dance) tease those who are familiar with the famous West Sumatran dance, but only fleetingly as more energetic segments immediately fill the stage -- lending an impression of much activity and social interaction. The dance closes with a gradual easing of movement into intermission.

The final piece, Sarikaik Pangka Sangketo/Conflicts in the Community, is fairly discrete for coming after the break.

Here, the previous four women are joined by the only male performer, whose litheness and energy match his fellow dancers well.

This dance exudes much more energy and tension, as it depicts community interaction and cooperation alternating with communal clashes in a creative use of the plates. The oral music conversations are copiously interrupted by kicking and slashing movements of the pencak silat martial arts, aided with hand claps and the beating of pants fabric to punctuate changes of scene.

The frequency of these changes gives the impression of a frenetic world.

This Sarikaik Pangka Sangketo segment, according to choreographer Ery Mefri, was inspired by his desire to celebrate the Minangkabau culture's sense of community that is characterized by cooperation, tolerance and compromise. His concern was that this cultural value was increasingly eroded by an animosity and violence generated, he believed, by rising individualism -- a part and parcel of modernization.

The Sangketo Piriang Dalam Randai dance production is an important part of the Festival Nusantara, which hopes to introduce contemporary Indonesian arts to this part of Australia.

Australians familiar with Indonesian performing arts from different regions are usually aware of traditional dances. The choreography in Sangketo, however, while retaining some traditional aspects, fuse them brilliantly with modern -- Western -- movements.

Simply put, it blew the audience away, and many spectators walked out of the theater commenting on how unique and unusual the performance was, while looking forward to the next event.

The two women sitting next to this writer were visiting from New Hampshire in the United States. They were so intrigued by the dance that they asked questions continuously throughout the show.

""We are so glad we came and caught this performance. We can't imagine seeing anything like this in New Hampshire,"" they said.