Everyone acknowledges that ballet is stuck with an intractable shortage of 19th-century classics. Most early works were lost to the stage before modern methods of notation and recording revolutionised the art form, hence the predictable reliance among most of today's companies on works such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty.

Yet when it comes to the more contemporary repertory, the choice is suddenly wide open. Not only has ballet inherited a large number of "heritage" works from the 20th century (far more, say, than opera) but there's also a generation of 21st-century choreographers such as Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor who are adding to the stock of new works at a prolific rate.

Yet the larger the repertory becomes, the more choices ballet companies face about what they actually perform. There's only so much stage time available, only so much money and manpower; and all companies have to find their own workable balance between dancing the box-office friendly classics, keeping alive the lesser-known heritage works and commissioning the new.

The magazine Dance Gazette has just put this issue of balance to six artistic directors, asking them which ballets they might be inclined to drop from the repertory, which they would like to rescue, and which they would identify as the classics of the future. Some of their answers have already sparked a debate among the magazine's readers .

On the matter of which ballets might be ready for retirement, directors are generally cautious about naming names. Tamara Rojo (English National Ballet) speaks for all six when she says there should be no question of jettisoning any of the 19th-century classics for good; but she does feel that the staging of these works can too often be reverential and dull: "I would like the approach to be more like opera or theatre, where the repertoire is consistently revived with a new vision and artistic direction that, sometimes, makes works wonderfully relevant and new."

Christopher Hampson (Scottish Ballet) goes a little further: "Large classical ballet companies have a challenge finding the balance between scheduling innovative new commissions while having to consistently display the family silver. I'd like to semi-retire the classical version of Swan Lake so that companies have more room to produce new works."

But boldest of all is Assis Carreiro (Royal Ballet of Flanders), who thinks "the three Tchaikovsky ballets (Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker) should be given a rest … it would be great for every company around the globe to just do triple bills for three years: to educate audiences and bring them on a journey."

That policy is risky of course, especially for companies who rely almost entirely on box-office revenues and private sponsorship. Reid Anderson (Stuttgart Ballet) is very conscious of his own privileged position, in having a sufficiently generous state subsidy and a loyal local audience to allow him to "present three world premieres in one evening and still be sold out".

When it comes to programming the ballets of the 20th century, some of the Balanchine, Ashton and MacMillan works have acquired classic status of their own and draw audiences almost as effortlessly as those of the 19th century. Others, however, exist in a more problematic borderland between "period" and "dated", and it can be a difficult choice whether or not to continue dancing them.

David McAllister (Australian Ballet) cites Léonide Massine's 1933 ballet Les Presages, which for decades was either forgotten or sidelined as a dusty footnote to history. His company's recent revival of the ballet has, however, proved to be "a revelation" for modern audiences. As he says "I think there are fads, and works that may seem tired are just on their way to becoming 'heritage'."

All of the directors agree on the importance of taking care of the more vulnerable of these heritage ballets: several mourn the neglect of works by Antony Tudor, and Carreiro also believes the repertory of Agnes de Mille should be seen more often.

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In identifying future classics, the survey shows remarkable agreement on the main contender, Wayne McGregor's Chroma. According to Karen Kain (National Ballet of Canada) this 2006 work is "a true modern classic. It's made such a great impact on our audience and it's now danced everywhere."

There's a rich follow-up list though, headed by works from Wheeldon and Ratmanksy, and also including pieces by John Neumeier (Kain and Rojo); Christian Spuck, Liam Scarlett, Alexander Ekman and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Carrerio); Matz Ek and Jiri Kylian (Rojo), and Hofesh Schechter (Hampson).

It is, however, only Carreiro who identifies that list's one glaring and depressing omission: "It has no female choreographers, that is a huge issue that needs resolving."