Manchester international festival 2017

The top 10 dance shows of 2017

Sgt Pepper strutted, Boris Charmatz gave us a buttock-scratching beauty and three men became Lady Macbeth – our critic picks the best dance of the year

Judith Mackrell

18, Dec, 2017 @6:00 AM

Manchester international festival theatre roundup – emotion socks you in the face

A captive audience is ruffled in immersive refugee drama The Welcoming Party. Elsewhere, powerful tales of sons and fathers and a war room full of women

Susannah Clapp

16, Jul, 2017 @7:00 AM

Boris Charmatz’s 10,000 Gestures: pushing forward, one step at a time

Boris Charmatz’s blistering new work is, he says, like life – a blizzard of unique moves, never repeated

Sarah Crompton

16, Jul, 2017 @7:00 AM

Cotton Panic! review – a story of solidarity that deserves better

Jane Horrocks stars in a collage of song, history and drama whose most powerful presences are its stage projections

Clare Brennan

16, Jul, 2017 @6:45 AM

10,000 Gestures review – a thrilling blizzard of movement

With capoeira kicks, pirouettes and the odd buttock scratch, Boris Charmatz’s new show tests the limits of how we experience dance

Judith Mackrell

14, Jul, 2017 @12:34 PM

BambinO – opera for real beginners

An audience of under-twos is captivated by Scottish Opera’s latest new work – and so is our critic

Fiona Maddocks

14, Jul, 2017 @10:15 AM

Cotton Panic! review – Jane Horrocks sings out for solidarity in tribute to Manchester mills

The folk songs of mill workers combine with the gospel tunes of black slaves in a gig-theatre show linking the histories of England’s north and America’s south

Lyn Gardner

11, Jul, 2017 @8:00 PM

What If Women Ruled the World? review – Kubrick meets covfefe as catastrophe strikes

Yael Bartana’s ill-judged performance piece at Manchester international festival mixed real, trailblazing women’s debate with actors’ scripted scenes

Hettie Judah

10, Jul, 2017 @5:05 PM

The Welcoming Party review – immersive show charts fear and hope in Fortress Britain

In Theatre-Rites’ remarkable, rackety promenade piece, staged in the world’s first railway warehouse, actors tell their own stories of migration

Lyn Gardner

10, Jul, 2017 @2:55 PM

True Faith; New Order + Liam Gillick: So It Goes review – Factory legacy holds sway

Joy Division, New Order and the label that nurtured them have made an indelible mark on the city, now celebrated in inventive and exhilarating art and music

Kitty Empire

09, Jul, 2017 @8:00 AM

ToGather: Susan Hefuna review – all the world's a cage

Roomfuls of boxes, cases and drawings aim to ‘catch experience’ in these sometimes haunting musings on migration

Rachel Cooke

09, Jul, 2017 @7:00 AM

Available Light review – a masterclass in movement

Lucinda Childs’s collaboration with Frank Gehry and John Adams remains illuminating 35 years on

Luke Jennings