Sadler’s Wells, the London dance theatre, has reported a strong year of ticket sales, but warns that financial pressures make it unlikely that some of the more experimental dance pieces for which it is famous will continue to be staged.

The north London venue sold 705,971 tickets last year and staged 899 performances at its three main venues, ranging from Cinderella to work from the Tanztheater Wuppertal, the German dance company started by Pina Bausch.

The Peacock Theatre, Sadler’s Wells’ satellite venue in London’s theatre district, aims to appeal to a more West End audience.

Sadler’s Wells had an income of £20.9m in the year to April 2011, including £14m from the box office, £1.5m from fundraising and £2.8m from Arts Council England.

But it edged slightly into loss on expenditure of £22m.

Sir David Bell, chairman, said this was because of spending on funds for artistic projects and dipping into its reserve fund for future artistic activity.

“This has not been the easiest time for any arts organisation but despite that we have ... ridden the wave with healthy ticket sales and an increased output in shows,” said Sir Bell.

“We are only too aware that the immediate future is very uncertain in the face of continuing problems in financial markets, which make it more than usually hard to predict consumer spending.”

One-fifth of Sadler’s Wells’ audience comes from abroad and more than a third of its audience is under the age of 35.

The company said in its annual report that the profile of dance had “risen immeasurably in a relatively short period of time given its prevalence in cinemas, on television and in performance spaces around the country”.

Matthew Bourne, the British choreographer known for staging Swan Lake with all-male dancers, is creating a new version of Sleeping Beauty for Sadler’s Wells’ Christmas season in 2012 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his dance company, New Adventures.

In his version of the Tchaikovksy ballet, the heroine, Aurora, is born in 1890, the year in which the Russian ballet was first performed in St Petersburg.

The piece will then move to 1911 when Aurora, comes of age but she will wake up in 2012. “I will present it in the dance styles of these different times,” said Mr Bourne.

“There is not much conflict in this story. In Act One, after she goes to sleep nothing much happens. Being a storyteller I want a story with a beginning, a middle and an end and some conflict and tension,” said Mr Bourne. “Sleeping Beauty has a 100-year sleep in the middle of it so the interval is 100 years long.”