US choreographer Twyla Tharp creates Deuce Coupe, set to songs by the Beach Boys

Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell dance together in the premiere of Kenneth MacMillan's Manon

Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Kirov company while on tour in Canada

Kenneth MacMillan uses Scott Joplin as his score for a ragtime ballet, Elite Syncopations

Czech choreographer Jiri Kylián becomes director of the Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague

Mikhail Baryshnikov dances in the New York premiere of Twyla Tharp's ballet Push Comes to Shove

Frederick Ashton creates a ballet based on Turgenev's play A Month in the Country, to music by Chopin

Kenneth MacMillan turns a double suicide of 1889 into a ferociously dramatic ballet, Mayerling

US choreographer Mark Morris founds his own company, the Mark Morris Dance Group, based in New York

16-year-old ballerina Sylvie Guillem joins the Paris Opera Ballet

Rudolf Nureyev begins a successful 6-year period as artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet

US choreographer William Forsythe becomes director of the Frankfurt Ballet

Sylvie Guillem and Laurent Hilaire dance in the Paris premiere of William Forsythe's In the middle somewhat elevated

The English National Ballet evolves from London's Festival Ballet

French ballerina Sylvie Guillem moves from Paris to join the Royal Ballet in London

Kenneth MacMillan gives 20-year-old Darcy Bussell the leading role in his new full-length ballet, The Prince of the Pagodas

Danish choreographer Peter Martins becomes director of the New York City Ballet

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris establish the White Oak Dance Project as a touring company

The Sadler's Wells ballet company moves to Birmingham, to become the Birmingham Royal Ballet

Russian dancer Irek Mukhamedov leaves the Bolshoi company to join the Royal Ballet in London

The New York company Dance Theatre of Harlem tours South Africa, with the slogan 'Dancing Through Barriers'

Riverdance, based on traditional Irish step dancing, is presented first as an entertainment in the Eurovision Song Contest

British choreographer Matthew Bourne has a great success with his all-male Swan Lake

Danish choreographer Peter Schaufuss founds his own ballet company at Holstebro

Israel uses force to remove settlers who refuse to leave Gaza in accordance with Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan