I’ve seen a fair amount of modern dance over the years but this powerful evening was a new one on me – a work based on the premise that the human body remains essential to war. It seems obvious, but until the drone takes over completely, combat is still ultimately about people, and then presumably someone will still have to guide them. People, not machines, make wars.

5 Soldiers looks at the training that prepares combat troops for the sheer physicality of combat, plus the possibility of injury and the impact that conflict has on the bodies, minds and emotions of those involved in it.

Rosie Kay’s visceral dance-piece does not enter into any discussion of the rights and wrongs of war, merely accepting the uncomfortable truth that there is always war somewhere, and we must always be prepared for it and endure it when it arrives – moral questions are not aired here. But right at the heart of any conflict is the human body, guided by the power of the will.

The five dancers, Duncan Anderson, Chester Hayes, Sean Marcs, Oliver Russell and Shelley Eva Haden don’t look a bit dancer-y, and are very different physical types. They could have been any young person on any street. The only feature they shared, apart from energy and commitment, poignantly, was youth. And why was I surprised one was a woman?

Every moment of this dance piece resonates with the gestures of battle, whether during the rigorous training, waiting to go into action, in dangerous manoeuvres, even at play.

5 Soldiers does not ask why some people choose combat as a way of life, merely accepts that there is always a war zone somewhere and that in between conflicts a military force is necessary to deter aggression. Rather we are presented simply with the intimate realities of the soldier’s life, physical, mental and emotional.

In a compelling evening for me the most moving part was the final section in which an amputee casualty strained to regain mobility, to exercise, to train even, fighting on despite terrible injuries. A truly compelling evening.

5 Soldiers now embarks on a lengthy British tour.