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Upcoming highlights in the dance world:

Juliette Binoche/Akram Khan: in-i (Montreal)

Binoche dances and Khan acts. She is the Oscar-winning French actress. He is one of Britain's most gifted contemporary choreographers. The work in-i is their original dance-theatre production that depicts the ups and downs of a tumultuous romantic relationship. The show grew out of the intense trial and error experimentation that the two worked through together in the studio.

Both are listed as director. By all accounts, the impact of these two awesome talents melding together their artistic worlds is compelling theatre. Montreal's Danse Danse Series is presenting the North American debut of this unique production that has generated rapturous reviews from the European press.

In-i runs at Montreal's Salle Pierre-Mercure, Jan. 6 to 17. The visual art installation In-Eyes featuring drawings and poems by Juliette Binoche is at Cinémathèque québécoise, Jan. 7 to Feb. 1.

Wen Wei Dance: Cock-Pit (Vancouver)

Vancouver choreographer/dancer Wen Wei Wang uses the physical body with great innovation. He creates memorable stage pictures that are as psychologically astute as they are kinetically demanding. His new work Cock-Pit is the commission he received for winning the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, one of Vancouver's most prestigious prizes. His theme is inspired by the years he spent at an all-male dance school in his native China. Created for five men and one woman, Wang explores the various ways, both positive and negative, that young men impact on each other, while the lone woman is the female archetype of their imaginations, sometimes mother, sometimes siren.

Cock-Pit runs at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, Feb. 24 to 28.

National Ballet of Canada: Innovation: Peter Quanz, Sabrina Matthews and Crystal Pite (Toronto)

This has to be one of the most exciting ballet concerts of the year – three world premieres by young Canadian choreographers at the peak of their powers. Quanz is known for his ability to meld beauty of lines with substance of thought. Matthews' hallmark is innovative and unpredictable physicality, while Pite's droll wit and incisive powers of observation expose human nature at its most vulnerable. This program is contemporary ballet on the cutting edge, and National artistic director Karen Kain has proven her commitment to Canadian dance with these commissions.

Innovation: Peter Quanz, Sabrina Matthews and Crystal Pite is at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, March 4 to 8.