This week's new dance

Les Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo, London The Trocks are the funniest act on the dance circuit and, even after 36 years, their basic conceit of dressing men up in tutus to tackle the great ballerina roles never fails to enchant. The dancers are technically hot enough to make their spoofs of Swan Lake or Giselle into hilariously accurate parodies. Collectively, their dedication inspires them to stage burlesques of repertory that few other companies venture into. This season we get an extract from Saint Leon's La Vivandière; a Russian-style Valpurgeyeva Noch, the ballet from Faust's opera Walpurgis Night; a pastiche of early 20th-century commedia dell'arte ballets; and, in homage to the late Merce Cunningham, the "postmodern dance movement essay", Patterns In Space. Individually, the dancers perform in blissfully daft aliases including their latest addition, Nina Enimenimynimova. Guaranteed pleasure. Peacock Theatre, WC2, Tue to 25 Sep Akram Khan: Vertical Road, Leicester After the experimental theatricality of his recent collaborations with Juliette Binoche, Sylvie Guillem et al, Khan moves back to pure dance in his latest work, Vertical Road. The title refers to the universal impulse for aspiration and transcendence, a line between the earthly and the spiritual that Khan says he is interested in exploring as an alternative to the furious pace of modern technology. His choreography, developing his fusion of modern and classical Asian aesthetics, is inspired by the iconography of angels and its international range is further embodied in a cast of dancers from Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The score comes from Khan's long-term collaborator Nitin Sawhney. The Curve, Tue to 18 Sep Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, London The Ailey company remains one of America's most entertaining dance outfits, combining Broadway pizzazz with its own inspirational tone. Returning to the UK for a six-week tour, the centrepiece of this programme is, as always, Revelations. This early Ailey classic, choreographed in 1960, became the company's trademark in celebrating Ailey's African American dance heritage and in emotionally portraying a culture of faith, stoicism and joy. Maintaining its link with the past, the season also features Hymn, an homage to Ailey himself choreographed by Judith Jamison; and a new piece by Ronald K Brown that pays tribute to Jamison. Set to music by Duke Ellington and Radiohead, among others, Dancing Spirits references styles from Cuba, Brazil and the United States to evoke the elegance of Jamison's dancing. If the spirit of the programme veers towards the familiar, there's also new work by Christopher Huggins and Robert Battle. Sadler's Wells, EC1, Tue to 25 Sep