Rosas, Drumming/ The Forsythe Company, Sadler's Wells

Two of today's most significant contemporary choreographers zip through London

William Forsythe and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in a week - it has to be Sadler’s Wells, the theatre to sample some of the world’s best dance stuff. De Keersmaeker’s Rosas are briefly here to take part in Sadler’s "Sampled", a new thread of summer performances surrounding a single famous piece with chat, film, interactivity and other related things.

iTMOi, Akram Khan Company, Sadler's Wells Theatre

Choreography is the victim in a collaborative tribute to Nijinsky's 'Rite of Spring'

When the public “got” or did not “get” the original Rite of Spring of Nijinsky and Stravinsky exactly 100 years ago this week, they couldn't call on emotional logic or aesthetic familiarity or symbolic recognition to help. Only imaginative reflex could cause some people to describe in words (the “fearful regrouping of the cells”) or pictures (Valentine Gross’s vivid, instant pencil sketches) what the iconoclastic piece felt like to experience.

Raven Girl, Royal Ballet/ Witch-Hunt, Bern Ballett/ The Great Gatsby, Northern Ballet

RAVEN GIRL, ROYAL BALLET / WITCH-HUNT, BERN BALLETT / THE GREAT GATSBY, NORTHERN BALLET Story-ballets are back, with witches, raven girls and the all too scrutable Gatsby

Story-ballets are back, with witches, raven girls and the all too scrutable Gatsby

Ballet is telling stories again. Last night Wayne McGregor’s debut as a narrator followed hot on the heels of Cathy Marston’s Witch-Hunt for Bern Ballett, both in the Royal Opera House complex, and Northern Ballet’s visit to London with David Nixon’s new The Great Gatsby. (To say nothing of David Bintley's Aladdin and even less of Peter Schaufuss's Midnight Express.)

Sylvie Guillem, 6000 Miles Away, Sadler's Wells Theatre

THEARTSDESK AT 7: SYLVIE GUILLEM BIDS ADIEU Living legend bows out at Sadler's Wells

Guillem weaves her game-changing magic in Forsythe and Ek

People go to see Sylvie Guillem the way they used to go to Isadora Duncan or Anna Pavlova, to see a living legend, a game-changer. Guillem became one of dance’s handful of game-changers not when she was the controversially over-fashioned classical ballerina, nor even when she was the arrestingly individual dramatic ballerina in great British narrative ballets.

An Evening for Hospices of Hope, Sadler's Wells Theatre

AN EVENING FOR HOSPICES OF HOPE, SADLER'S WELLS Nine leading men answer the call to ballerina Alina Cojocaru's gala

Nine leading men answer the call to ballerina Alina Cojocaru's gala

Thank you, Romania, for ballerina Alina Cojocaru, pianist Dinu Lipatti, sopranos Angela Gheorghiu and Ileana Cotrubas, sculptor Constantin Brancusi, tennis player Ilie Nastase, playwright Eugène Ionesco, conductor Sergiu Celibidache, actors Edward G Robinson and Johnny Weissmuller among other Romanians who have added so much artistry and entertainment to modern life.

Hofesh Shechter/ Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Puz/zle, Sadler's Wells

HOFESH SHECHTER / SIS LARBI CHERKAOUI, PUZ/ZLE, SADLER'S WELLS Two big contemporary dance names - one pleases himself, the other pleases his sponsors

Two big contemporary dance names - one pleases himself, the other pleases his sponsors

I was trying to remember the last time a choreographer actually tried to make the audience smile in the past few months. Dance-lovers are suckers for guilt.

Romeo and Juliet, National Ballet of Canada, Sadler's Wells

ROMEO AND JULIET, NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA, SADLER'S WELLS Ballet's most popular lovers fare tepidly in the hands of Alexei Ratmansky

Ballet's most popular lovers fare tepidly in the hands of Alexei Ratmansky

The combination of Romeo, Juliet and the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky should be almost too much for the blood pressure. Those defiant lovers, that emotive yet intellectual young Russian craftsman of ballet. Hence the huge turn-out of balletomanes for National Ballet of Canada at Sadler’s Wells last night.

The Rite of Spring/Petrushka, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, Sadler's Wells

THE RITE OF SPRING / PETRUSHKA, FABULOUS BEAST DANCE THEATRE, SADLER'S WELLS A contemporary choreographer takes a fresh look at two Stravinsky classics

A contemporary choreographer takes a fresh look at two Stravinsky classics

In String of Rites, Sadler’s Wells has commissioned three works as a tribute to Vaslav Nijinsky’s 1913 Le sacre du printemps. It opened with the Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre’s double bill, The Rite of Spring and Petrushka. Both scores are by Igor Stravinsky, created for the original choreography by Nijinsky and Michel Fokine respectively. 

Israel Galván/ Farruquito, Flamenco Festival, Sadler's Wells

Mesmerising experimentation vs a traditional peacock - two men delight

The annual Sadler’s Wells Flamenco Festival is a hidden treasure-house of brilliance, too quietly sneaking into London in the unappealing limbo between winter and spring, but surely one of the great global gatherings of the dazzling individualists in this mysterious dance form. Flamenco ranges from the red-top populists like the ebullient exhibitionist Farruquito to the wilfully innovative Israel Galván, who lit up two Sunday nights in a row which both brought the house to their feet in ovations.

Tomatito, Sadler's Wells

A flamenco pro plays it safe

He looks the part: straggly, desert hair and haunted fizzog. He sounds the part: opening dry rhythmic strumming over unchorded strings; acrobatic trills; percussive attack. Flanked on the left by two singers, Kiki Cortinas and Simón Román, and a shadowy dancer, Paloma Fantova, and on the right by second guitarist El Cristi and percussionst Israel Suárez, this flamenco stalwart decked out the Sadler’s Wells stage with the requisite musical equipment.