This week's new dance

Jonathan Burrows & Matteo Fargion: Cheap Lecture & The Cow Piece, London Choreographer Burrows and composer Fargion have been collaborating together for so long, that it's hard to know where the contribution of each artist begins and ends. Burrows's sense of rhythm is as acute as a musician's, while Fargion has a kind of kinetic wit that a dancer might envy. Cheap Lecture is a rhythmic spoken performance set to music, in which the two men debate issues surrounding their work. Embracing both the philosophical and the comic, this brain game of a piece gives vivid articulation to the performers' long working relationship while veering into wild digressions about the nature of audiences, dance, time, structure and repetition. Finally, in closer The Cow Piece, further material unfolds in a chaotic meditation upon dance, music and death. Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1, Wed, Thu Phoenix Dance Theatre: Declarations, On tour Phoenix has another new director and another new style of repertory, this one cherry-picked by the recently appointed Sharon Watson. There's a clear popular touch, especially in Maybe Yes Maybe, Maybe No – a new commission from Aletta Collins that has five dancers and a microphone exchanging insults, jokes and attitude as a score by Street Furniture transforms their voices into accents and beats. The Audacious One, a piece by former Phoenix dancer Warren Adams, uses Barack Obama's "audacity of hope" speech to develop a study of political intrigue and power. In a more abstract vein is Locked In Vertical by Isira Makuloluwe, accompanied by music from François Caffenne. Completing the programme is Haunted Passages, Philip Taylor's setting of Benjamin Britten's Lachrymae score, which was first danced by Phoenix in 1989. Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh‚ Sat The Royal Ballet: Triple Bill, London The Royal Ballet's first new work of the season is a commission from Kim Brandstrup following up Rushes, his debut piece for the company. This latest ballet, created for principal dancers Leanne Benjamin, Alina Cojocaru, Edward Watson and Johan Kobborg, is an encounter between present and past, an evocation of the French court of Louis XIV that is evoked through Thomas Adès's setting of music by 18th-century French composer François Couperin. Modernity and classicism also meet in Theme and Variations, Balanchine's setting of Tchaikovsky that evokes the grandeur of imperial Russian ballet with the speed and dexterity of 20th-century American neoclassicism. Completing the programme is a revival of Ashton's La Valse, his elegant demonic setting of Ravel's titular score, and Winter Dreams, Kenneth MacMillan's concentrated adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters. Royal Opera House, WC2, Fri to 30 Oct