Dance: When British companies found a new direction (from abroad)

All change was the motto for dance, with almost every major British company receiving or looking for a new director – and so far all finding them abroad. David Nixon, a Canadian, is still preparing his first premiere at Northern Ballet Theatre, but Matz Skoog, from Sweden, started well by making English National Ballet's dancers look bright and happy. Ross Stretton's first choices for the Royal Ballet's repertoire, Rudolf Nureyev's Don Quixote and John Cranko's Onegin, both came with him from Australia and happily brought back two choreographers long neglected here; merits included meaty leading roles and much vigorous dancing for the corps de ballet. Christopher Bruce has only just decided to quit Rambert Dance Company, and the folk responsible for Scottish Ballet seem unable even to decide what kind of a company they want.

Looking for more positive changes, let's praise those whose courage in branching out paid off: Sylvie Guillem's distinctive staging of Giselle; Jonathan Burrows with his latest choreographic developments; and television's "Ballet Boyz" with the success of their new company, George Piper Dances. And thank God for visiting foreign companies that showed it is still possible to find interesting new choreographers: San Francisco Ballet's Yuri Possokhov for Magrittomania, and the Dutch National Ballet's Krzrysztof Pastor for Do Not Go Gentle.

New York City Ballet and the Edinburgh Festival gratifyingly avoided clichés by presenting a week with none of their heritage Balanchine and Robbins works, only a selection of recent creations. Their reward was to be able to include the best of the year's premieres, Polyphonia by Christopher Wheeldon to music by Ligeti. That was pure dancing, and so were the two outstanding premieres for British companies: Christopher Hampson's Double Concerto with English National Ballet, and David Bintley's The Seasons with his Birmingham Royal Ballet – much more enjoyable than his ponderous Arthur Part II. To the other Royal Ballet at Covent Garden fell the distinction of the year's most disastrous flop, Ashley Page's This House Will Burn.

There was plenty of wonderful dancing to enjoy: from the Kirov's young dancers, especially Irina Golub, Daria Pavlenko and Anton Korsakov in a season at Covent Garden; from an amazing line-up of male soloists in a Bolshoi group at Drury Lane; from Birmingham's youngsters; and with the Royal Ballet from Alina Cojocaru, Tamara Rojo, Mara Galeazzi, the newcomer Marianella Nunez, Johan Kobborg and guests Carlos Acosta and Ethan Steifel in one role after another. Long may they reign!

Highlights
NYC Ballet's 'Polyphonia'
Ballerina Alina Cojocaru
Dutch National Ballet
George Piper Dances
ENB's 'Double Concerto'