As a choreographer, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has always been drawn to the big idea, taking abstract theories about culture, religion and evolution as the starting points for his work. Sometimes his creations flounder under the weight of their intellectual exposition. But in Fractus V, which is structured around the writings of Noam Chomsky, the ideas form a fluid medium in which the buoyant dance can play.

It is a deliberately masculine work; all nine of its dancers and musicians are men. But it also embraces an exhilarating diversity of styles, and as so often with Cherkaoui’s work, it delivers its most emotional charge at the point where those styles meet. In Fractus V, that point comes at the beginning and end of the work, where all the cast join together in a soaring polyphonic song. It’s a marvellous braid of sound, fusing Middle Eastern influences to a wildly ecstatic pitch, and as a fierce expression of unity it resonates across the work, providing a rich context for the fragments of Chomsky text that are narrated throughout.

Chomsky’s thesis is that we live in a world where language and information are manipulated by governments to become tools of political control; where freedom of thought has to be preserved by collective resistance. And for Cherkaoui, this principle of collaboration is the choreography’s driving force. He expresses it through images of marvellous ingenuity, slotting his dancers together into multi-limbed patterns and constellations, but also through a constant swapping between forms.

Drawn to the big idea … Fractus V. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Cherkaoui himself performs a duet with the flamenco dancer Fabien Thomé Duten, his soft fluid body steeled with witty swagger and strut. Elsewhere, the dance morphs into circusy backflips and breakdance spins, while the musicians provide their own brilliant fusion of oriental jazzy and percussive sound.

There’s also a dark underbelly of violence to this community, as the men descend into precision-choreographed gun battles and fights. But as with the best of Charkaoui’s work, Fractus V is a thrillingly expansive watch, large with possibilities and potent with ideas.

•At Sadler’s Wells, London, until 28 October. Box office: 020-7863 8000.