We Should Have Never Walked on the Moon is long but its conclusion is exhilarating

It’s a thrilling end to an evening that doesn’t always hit those heights, but that has some highlights along the way. This massive event, performed by 50 dancers from Rambert and Ballet National de Marseille, plus 30 students, is part of the Southbank’s ambition to shake up the traditional presentation of dance.

The action sprawls across stages, terraces and community areas. On a staircase in the Royal Festival Hall, dancers robotically learn gestures or run on the spot in the intriguing Deep Stream – an ongoing performance that may or may not be set in the aftermath of a nuclear accident. Upstairs in a meeting room behind blurry glass, two performers meet in Liminal Space. They circle each other, nuzzling and touching. One takes off their clothes; one leaves.

Outside on the main terrace, another group of dancers vandalises a stretch limo called the Beast. Others circle in trucks or spray-paint slogans on the floor. A film of rioting plays on the big screen on repeat. It’s called The Master’s Tools and it is not subtle.

In the ballroom of the Festival Hall and on the stages of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, (La)Horde run through some popular favourites, such as the enjoyable Grime Ballet (men in pointe shoes and grime on the soundtrack) and the dazzling Hop(e)storm: social dancing on acid.

There’s also an extract from Lucinda Childs’ Concerto, which in its classical formality feels like a bulletin from another world, and a world premiere from Rambert’s artistic director, Benoit Swan Pouffer, in the shape of Us, an elegant duet for two men full of skyward stretches and supportive lifts.

In the QEH foyer, Low Rider sees two dancers in peppermint spacesuits and masks climb over the skeleton of a car, but the car shudders and shakes and tries to throw them off. In the Purcell Room and throughout the building there are films and installations.

Photograph by Hugo Glendinning