This week sees the start of the new Sadler's Wells season, with a celebration of male dancers, and alongside the ongoing platform of new choreography at The Place, Resolution!, the Royal Ballet are showing their own platform of new choreography by their own dancers, Draft Works. And the good thing is, you don't even have to be a fan of ballet to enjoy it!


24 - 26 January: Draft Works
Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House
Tickets & details: www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=17839

This is the annual platform for the Royal Ballet to showcase the work of its dancers, usually giving the audience a rare opportunity to appreciate the less senior dancers in the company as they take starring roles. While the results are varied, there will be a mixture of classical ballet, modern ballet and contemporary dance, all of it performed by some of this country's finest dancers. This lineup features works by Tamara Rojo and Thomas Whitehead, and the tickets are only £10.50 (£6.50 concs) - go see this if you can, and reschedule your plans if need be.


29 January - Ivan Putrov: Men In Motion
Sadler's Wells
Tickets & details: www.sadlerswells.com/show/Ivan-Putrov-Men-in-Motion

It seems that when certain principal dancers leave the Royal Ballet, they turn their talents to presenting galas and similar events, and Ivan Putrov is no different. Having left the Royal Ballet in 2010 to pursue his collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys and Javier De Frutos on The Most Incredible Thing, Men In Motion is a celebration of male dancers, featuring leading dancers from the Royal Ballet, Mariinsky and Bolshoi Ballets and English National Ballet, performing works from the past 100 years.

For the non-ballet fans, the award-winning Daniel Proietto will be performing his breathtaking solo from Russell Maliphant's Afterlight yet again - which is easily worth the price of the ticket on its own.


Worth Catching

23 January at 12.30pm: National Dance Awards
Details: www.criticscircle.org.uk/dance/?ID=241

Unlike the music, theatre and film industries, the dance industry doesn't receive a whole lot of recognition, so these are the main annual awards we have to look forward to.

Sadly, the modern and classical dancers have been lumped into the same category, so we can only hope that ALL of the male and female dancers jointly win the Best Dancer awards.


25 January: Resolution!
The Place
Tickets & details: www.theplace.org.uk/11672/whats-on/nylon-theatre-the-mynewt-project-yukiko-masui.html

We've heard good things about this evening, so we can only hope it'll be a good one! Yukiko Masui's past works have apparently been beautiful, while Alex Newton of The MyNewt Project has worked with English Youth Ballet, Will Tuckett (Royal Ballet), David Bintley (Birmingham Royal Ballet) and Mavin Khoo, so we're expecting good things from him.