Dance 2008: Bausch, Binoche and the best of the rest

Pina Bausch's double bill of The Rite of Spring (above) and Cafe Müller at Sadler's Wells won the award for best new dance production Photograph: Tristram Kenton

In April, the New York City Ballet set up camp at the Coliseum with four programmes, including work by Balanchine, Ratmansky and Wheeldon. Judith Mackrell particularly enjoyed their 'louche, twitchy, dangerous' production of West Side Story Suite Photograph: Tristram Kenton

In a groundbreaking collaboration with the National Ballet of China, choreographer Akram Khan brought a new work to Liverpool in March as part of the city's capital of culture celebrations. Entitled Bahok (Bengali for 'carrier') and set in an airport lounge, it drew on the dancers' experiences of alienation from home Photograph: Yu Liang/PR

Khan returned to London's National Theatre in September for a starry pas de deux with Juliette Binoche in a piece they called In-i. It was Binoche's first public performance as a dancer; she wanted, she said, 'to get close to other artists, to share something I've never done before' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

In Cloud Gate Dance Theatre's Moon Water at Sadler's Wells, which appeared in April, 'a single current of energy runs, unbroken, through the dancers' bodies', wrote Judith Mackrell Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui teamed up with Shaolin monks for Sutra in May. The choreographer rehearsed with the monks at their temple: 'Everything they do is very beautiful, although some of it could actually break your arm,' he wrote in his diary Photograph: Anthony Jiang Nan

The 50th-anniversary world tour of West Side Story reached London in July. Lyn Gardner celebrated the show's 'exquisite musical and physical poetry' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

After adapting Bizet (The Car Man) and Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands), Matthew Bourne put his distinctive spin on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray at August's Edinburgh international festival. For some, the show was empty and superficially glitzy ... but wasn't that the point? Photograph: Murdo Macleod

The Edinburgh festival also hosted the State Ballet of Georgia, with prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili in the title role. 'How this lot managed to pull it together as Russian tanks rolled into their country, is beyond me,' wrote Charlotte Higgins Photograph: Murdo Macleod

At the Peacock theatre in September, the all-male troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo mixed sophisticated ballet jokes with personality and verve Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Christopher Wheeldon's new company, Morphoses, presented work that was sharply staged with few frills at Sadler's Wells in September Photograph: Tristram Kenton

The Tel Aviv-based Batsheva Dance Company brought two shows to London this year: the small-scale Mamootot at the Riverside Studios and a trio of performances, Three, at Sadler's Wells (above). Judith Mackrell was impressed by the climax of Three, which sees the company 'flying around the stage like atoms of untrammelled energy' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Balanchine and Ratmansky were on the bill at Sadler's Wells when the Mariinsky Ballet travelled there in October. The Mariinsky also offered a programme of William Forsythe work, which won the critics' hearts. 'If you're wondering about the viability of ballet as a living art form,' wrote the Observer's Luke Jennings, 'go and see the Mariinsky Ballet dance the work of William Forsythe' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

In October the Barbican presented a new piece by Merce Cunningham, who turned 90 this year. XOVER was a tribute to two of the choreographer's collaborators, John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Rambert's annual outing at Sadler's Wells, in November, was Eternal Light, choreographed by Mark Baldwin. The show managed to be 'exquisite, tacky, baffling, tear-jerking' - all at the same time, wrote our critic Photograph: Tristram Kenton

The year ended with a five-star festive treat. Judith Mackrell thinks the Royal Ballet's Nutcracker is 'easily the most fabulous-looking [and] also the most serious' of the many productions doing the rounds. If you can get tickets, it's on until 10 January in rep Photograph: Tristram Kenton