- Pity the hapless men who went on dates with artist Laurie Long; while they were flirting, she was recording them on a miniature camera and a hidden microphone. The Dating Surveillance Project opens at the BCA Gallery, Bedford on 7th January.
- The Full Monteverdi is a capella group I Fagiolini's exploration of Monteverdi's fourth book of madrigals, radically reinvented as a music theatre piece about relationships unravelling; startling and intense, it is revived at Dartington Arts on 16th January.
- Revolution, war and queues figure in Soviet Times, a fascinating trawl through the photographic archives of the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, showing at the Imperial War Museum North, Manchester from 7th January.
- Blind Summit, the company behind the enchanting bunraku puppets in the ENO's Madam Butterfly, give Low Life, their heartbreaking, Bukowski-inspired picaresque, its London premiere at the BAC from 17th January.
- Presenting 35 triple bills of contemporary dance, the Resolution! festival is a lucky dip; new choreography can be baffling. At its best, though, the festival, which runs from 5th January at the Place, London, reveals some extraordinary artists at the start of their careers.