Best of 2007 - Dance

Sara Baras offered an irresistible taste of Spain’s new era of grand-scale, hyper-glamorous flamenco in a program titled “Sabores,” part of UCLA Live at Royce Hall.  (Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times)

At UCLA’s Royce Hall, Akram Khan performs a kathak routine, which is danced barefoot. Khan also performed with classical dancer Sylvie Guillem, making for a starry experiment in person-to-person and culture-to-culture interplay.  (Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times)

Kyoto butoh master Katsura Kan joins Canadian dancer Gabriella Daris in a haunting duet, part of “Global Butoh” at Highways Performance Space.  (Alex Gallardo/Los Angeles Times)

Dazzling, tireless tap dance star Savion Glover, performing at the Hollywood Bowl in July.  (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

One of the year’s break-through events, “Foreign Bodies,” choreographed by Jacques Heim, had Diavolo Dance Theater members peforming to Esa-Pekka Salonen’s 2001 composition of the same name, accompanied by the L.A. Philharmonic.  (Christine Cotter/Los Angeles Times)

Julie Shanahan moves past a whale hulk in the quirky, fascinating, overextended and rule-breaking extravaganza “Ten Chi” from Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal, receiving its North American premiere at Royce Hall.  (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)