Best of dance in 2012

High: "Onegin" at San Francisco Ballet: John Cranko's ravishing "Onegin" inspired not only luscious dancing but also transformative performances of enormous dramatic depth, from the corps to the principal and across four casts of dancers at San Francisco Ballet. Everywhere you looked onstage, the dancing transcended mere steps, confirming yet again that this is a ballet that has the power not only to change the way you think about artists you've watched for years, but also to change the way you see dance forever.

Low: The ousting of Dennis Nahat at Ballet San Jose: In a split that was as unpleasant as it was confounding, in January, Ballet San Jose's board abruptly removed Dennis Nahat as artistic director of the company he founded, while commencing a partnership with American Ballet Theatre. After a shakeup in the ranks, and a precipitous reorganization of artistic leadership, the company seems to have regained some of its footing. But while no one disputes that change is part of the artistic life of any organization, it didn't have to happen this way.

Most improved: Emerging Pictures' "Ballet in Cinema": In times past, balletomanes resorted to secretly traded, shaky and shady videotapes if they wanted to savor the Bolshoi performing "The Bright Stream" or catch a glimpse of the Nederlands Dans Theatre in between infrequent U.S. tours. Now "Ballet in Cinema" has made it possible to see everything from the Royal Ballet's latest "Swan Lake" to Martha Clarke works at La Scala, right in the comfort of your own neighborhood movie theater. Of course, nothing beats seeing live performance, but if a jaunt to the great theaters of Europe isn't in your immediate future, this comes close.

MVP: San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival: Hundreds of world dance performing troupes and organizations make their home in the Bay Area, and for 34 years the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival has brought that enormous diversity of dance to the stage - Indian bharatanatyam, Brazilian capoeira, West African dance, Argentine folklórico, Appalachian clogging, flamenco, Celtic dance - the list is both dazzling and exhaustive. Whether the troupe is earthy or airy, traditional or avant-garde, the Ethnic Dance Festival creates a milieu in which Chinese lion dances can coexist with Ewe warrior dances from Ghana while offering a lens on the human experience that can be thrilling, touching, informative and entertaining, often all in the same evening.

Top 10

Los Farruco: (Bay Area Flamenco Festival, Sept. 30). Every performance of Los Farruco feels like flamenco as it should be - low on frills and furbelows but high on octane and electric in its execution.

"Swan Lake": (Mariinsky Ballet, Cal Performances, Oct. 10). The iconic Mariinsky proved once again that true beauty in classical ballet is found not only in the elegant details but also the meticulous and loving attention to tradition.

Clas/Sick Hip Hop Festival: (Dec. 1) Marc Bauthi Joseph's brilliant informal format put the audience on the same floor with icons of hip-hop, and when you saw the look of inspiration in the eyes of the younger dancers crowded around the feet of Nonstop and I Dummy, admiring, analyzing and absorbing dance, suddenly it felt as if theatrical dance had fresh relevance to a new generation.

Renee Robinson performing with Alvin Ailey: (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Cal Performances, March 17) We didn't know it then, but it was the last time the Bay Area would see Renee Robinson in her iconic yellow dress rocking our souls in Alvin Ailey's joyous "Revelations." The inimitable Robinson, who retired in December after 31 years with the company, spread her infectious enthusiasm like a gospel, and we were her willing acolytes.

Boy Blue's "Emancipation of Expressionism": (San Francisco International Hip Hop DanceFest, Nov. 18) Hip-hop at its most expressive took on the inexorable momentum of a freight train when London's Boy Blue performed at the hip-hop festival crackling with adrenaline, barely reined in by mathematical precision.

Katherine Wells in "Helen": (Robert Moses' Kin, March 30) Was Robert Moses creating a tribute to an unforgettable woman? The remarkable Katherine Wells was mesmerizing, seductive and authoritative - a dancer that you can't stop watching, no matter what she's doing or where she is onstage. KT Nelson's "Transit": (ODC Dancing Downtown, March 17) Max Chen's quirky and inventive sculptures only added to the velocity and dynamic range of KT Nelson's wistful portrait of the pulse and hum of urban life.

"Constellation": (Lines Ballet, Oct. 19) The stars aligned in one of Alonzo King's most satisfying and playful works, an array of thrilling and kinetic dance framed by Jim Campbell's innovative LED light designs.

Ohad Naharin's "Max": (Batsheva Dance Company, San Francisco Performances, Feb. 23) Ohad Naharin's visceral Gaga technique and its interplay of muscle and bone was surprisingly compelling in a display that was as inviting as it was ritualistic.

"Tarantella": (Diablo Ballet, May 5) Robert Dekkers soared in lofty jumps and Hiromi Yamazaki flirted with intricate pointe work - together they brought to the notoriously tricky "Tarantella" a glamour and delightful vivacity - and a sense of fun too rarely seen in Balanchine's works.

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Christmas extravaganza lights up Livermore

This year, as he does every December, deacon Dave Rezendes takes the season of lights literally, with an awe-inspiring Christmas light extravaganza at his home on Hillcrest Avenue in Livermore.

For 30 years, Rezendes, an ordained deacon serving at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Livermore, has designed and constructed an eye-popping wonderland of Christmas lights in and around his home, which he calls Casa del Pomba, or House of the Dove. Each year there's a new theme, and each year it seems there are more lights, but the wonderment is always there.

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'Hard Nut,' Mark Morris, review: a crackup

There are days when you just need something to cheer you up, especially during a holiday season darkened by ineffable tragedy. If the drollery of Mark Morris' "The Hard Nut" - which returned to Cal Performances this weekend with shows that run through Dec. 23 - is insouciant entertainment that surely doesn't profess to change the world, it's also a gleeful romp with the power to make you laugh in moments when laughter is hard to come by.

In an essay titled "Why Comedy is Truer to Life Than Tragedy" this year, Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout observed, "In most human lives, absurdity and sorrow are woven together too tightly to be teased apart." I couldn't help but think of those words and consider the vital necessity for the sort of tension-relieving exhale that "The Hard Nut" provides as the lights went down at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall on Friday night. We need comedy, if only to help us cope with the cosmic absurdity that is human frailty.

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2 'Nutcracker' versions convey tradition

You can't help but enjoy the wide-eyed, lively enthusiasm that greeted the first "Nutcrackers" of the season this weekend, both at San Francisco Ballet and Ballet San Jose. While newcomers to the ballet found in every trick and turn the awe of discovery, for longtime viewers the annual "Nutcracker" tests our ability to be transported yet again by the magic of childhood dreams.

And there's plenty of theatrical wizardry to appreciate in Helgi Tomasson's version of the holiday classic, which opened on Friday night at the War Memorial Opera House, the Tchaikovsky score nicely paced under the baton of Martin West. Now in its ninth outing, the San Francisco Ballet production efficiently weaves the tale of young Clara's adventures with her Nutcracker prince, aided immensely in the first act by Michael Yeargan's sets - which go from the sleek Victorian to monumental - and in the second act by Martin Pakledinaz's exuberant and fanciful costumes.

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S.F. Olympians Festival: Hit and myths

As in the days of Greek mythology, the gods war with the Titans again - only this time, we lowly humans can decide the winners at the San Francisco Olympians Festival: Titans vs. Olympians, a 12-night series of play readings that continues for the next two weeks at San Francisco's Exit Theatre.

The festival is the brainchild of Stuart Bousel, who says it grew out of a lifelong love of Greek mythology and theater. An actor, director and playwright, Bousel came up with the idea of a series of new plays about old themes in 2009, while directing a production of Aristophanes' "The Frogs." A lively conversation in a car with his actors led to a wishful discussion of why there weren't more performances of Greek plays.

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Latkepalooza: No need to be Jewish

Perhaps one of the fondest memories a kid can have of Hanukkah is the smell of hot potato latkes fried in oil, and sweet sufganiyot - and the yummy treats are a highlight of Sunday's annual Latkepalooza, hosted by the Peninsula Jewish Community Center in Foster City.

The Festival of Lights, as Hanukkah is known as, is the holiday that remembers the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C., when the Jewish hero Judah Maccabee took back the city from the Greeks. Purifying the sacred temple space after the victory required keeping the temple's menorah lit for eight days, but the Maccabees, as Judah's fellow revolutionaries were known as, discovered there was only enough oil for one day. In the miracle of Hanukkah, the menorah remained lighted for eight days.

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Dance Studio Life: Augusta Moore's Bohemian Ballet

“You want to use those butt muscles for good and not evil,” Augusta Moore cheerfully calls out at the start of Saturday morning ballet class in the bright, spacious studio on the second floor of ODC’s Shotwell Street building in San Francisco.

Everyone is lying prone, legs floating in the air behind them, while Moore strolls amid the bodies like a benign drill sergeant. None of this would be unusual in modern dance class, but this is intermediate ballet. Director of ODC’s ballet program since the prominent San Francisco arts organization and dance company opened ODC Dance Commons in 2005, Moore is a beloved teacher to many ballet students. But rather than always starting class with a conventional set of pliés or tendus, Moore often has students take a few minutes at the beginning of barre to identify and activate particular muscle groups. It is this kinesthetically aware approach—along with Moore’s tirelessly encouraging outlook, rigorous classicism, and irreverent personality—that draws a devoted following to her classes.

Read More: Bohemian Ballet at Dance Studio Life