IN A Sydney Dance Company rehearsal room, dancer Emee Dillon is testing her Michelle Jank costume, which is still being made. The glamorous designer is standing by, on alert, as Dillon puts the precariously pinned white leotard and sheer floor-length skirt through their paces.

Suddenly, the dancer squeals as a pin gives way and a shoulder strap springs free. Dillon clutches the fabric to her chest and goes down in a heap, trying to maintain her modesty in front of everyone in the room. "Drama queen," one of the boys sniffs loudly.

It's just another day of rehearsals for Sid's Waltzing Masquerade, the company's third big contemporary dance work of the year. The piece is choreographed by 32-year-old Aszure Barton. She comes to Sydney from New York, where she has her own company and is lucky enough to count Mikhail Baryshnikov - whom she simply calls Misha - among her mentors.

Barton arrived in Sydney not knowing what she was going to do for her piece.

"It's frustrating sometimes and it's vulnerable sometimes to not have a plan but I find those intuitive moments pop out and just surprise you," she says. It must also be a little scary? "I feel very naked - I wear my hat a lot because you feel a little bit like you're walking in the nude," she says.

Barton had help getting in the right headspace - the SDC sent her picture books of the Australian outback for inspiration. She's reflecting the "aliveness" of those colours in her costuming, which transforms from black and white to a bright, vibrant??palette.

The colourful outfits are just one way that Barton's bringing a sense of joy to the company. "The company's been through a lot in the past while. It was really important for me to bring a positive energy into the studio. "I feel like you can nurture a lot more with that than using a whip and chain. One of the dancers, Jason [Wilcock], said to me the other day this is the first time they've been able to smile - that it's OK to smile on stage. It was nice to hear that."

The company's upheaval began when artistic director Graeme Murphy left after three decades at the helm to pursue other avenues. After an exhaustive search for a replacement, Tanja Liedtke was about to step into Murphy's shoes when she died in a road accident last year. The SDC quickly secured the services of three renowned choreographers - Meryl Tankard, Rafael Bonachela and Barton - so that the SDC could stage a season this year while continuing the search for an artistic director.

Barton's process started with asking the dancers to show her a gesture for each year they'd been with the company. Bradley Chatfield's long response - he has been an SDC dancer for 17 years - immediately marked him out. "Bradley is definitely escorting us through the piece," she says. "But we see 16 distinct individuals travelling alongside him."

The "Sid" part of the title is a nod to Sydney but the "masquerade" part was inspired by the dancers' wide variation in physiques. "If you look at these dancers . . . they're completely crazy size-wise," Barton says. "It's a bit of a circus and I love that."

Before heading to the rehearsal room, where two boys are finessing a routine danced to a version of Waltzing Matilda, one of the SDC's tiniest dancers, Teagan Lowe, drops by to give a dancer's perspective on working with Barton.

"It's been very different coming from Rafael's piece, which was very athletic," Lowe says. "We thought we were all using every single muscle that we had but then, when we started again with Aszure, because it was so different we found all these other muscles. Our abs were absolutely torn to shreds."

SID'S WALTZING MASQUERADE

Saturday to October 25, CarriageWorks, Eveleigh, 136 100, $40-$70.