Ballet Bellevue—Artistic director of this Eastside company, Ronn Tice, a former PNB soloist, offers a balanced mix of original contemporary works and pretty story ballets. Feathertop, after the Nathaniel Hawthorne story, is on the fall repertory program (10/2-4). For more traditional fare, see The Sleeping Beauty (12/4-6), and The Fairy Queen (3/5-14). This season Tice premieres the First Annual Bellevue International Dance Festival (5/14-22) with American choreographer Robert North's Death and the Maiden, among other works by visiting dance companies. The Theater at Meydenbauer Center, 11100 NE Sixth, Bellevue, 425-455-1345.
Carmona Flamenco—Starting the season with a sizzle by offering two sets of flamenco music, song, and dance (9/12), this passionate local ensemble performs every second Saturday of the month. Julia's Park Place, 5410 Ballard NW, 783-2033.
Chamber Dance Company—This season, the University of Washington's resident professional modern dance company's annual performance of modern classics (1/28-30) features Lar Lubovitch's quintessentially beautiful Northstar (1978); Ruth St. Denis' lovely scarf number, Soaring (1920); Traditions (1935), Charles Weidman's trio for three men; and one more historical gold mine, as yet unannounced. UW campus, Meany Theater, 543-4880.
Cornish College of the Arts—Cornish Dance Theater's biannual performances (11/20-21, 4/16-17) showcase cream-of-the-crop student performers in works created for them by faculty members Wade Madsen, Deborah Wolfe, Llory Wilson, and Pat Hon. For the fall program, local guest choreographer and funny man Christian Swenson will create a collaboration with the theater department. New York's David Dorfman, local sensualist KT Niehoff, and ballet master Bruce Wells will set works in the spring. Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway E, 726-5066.
Cranky Destroyers—This group continues to sponsor the one-of-a-kind Seattle Festival of Alternative Dance and Improvisation (8/99). 782-5707.
Crispin Spaeth Dance Group—Spaeth's work has crept up on me in recent years. She quietly goes her way, and without fanfare will suddenly show a handful of priceless and very unusual gems—modern, spare, and sometimes devastating in their honesty. Center on Contemporary Art has commissioned the company to create an interactive closing-party performance (9/12) for the installation Stick Bladder. COCA, 65 Cedar, 728-1980. Chicken Little (10/1-4), billed as "an evening of new dance works that takes a darkly comic look at menacing forces and squeaky alarmists," features guest dancer Michele Miller, composer Wayne Horvitz, and director Mark Jenkins. Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway E, 324-8109.
Co-Motion Dance—Continuing with their popular Etudes series, coartistic directors Gail Heilbron and Jesse Jaramillo present new choreography and acting scenes developed around characters in search of comedic answers to midlife crises (2/7). The Creative Dance Center, 12577 Densmore N; 3/7 at Freehold Theater Lab Studio, 1525 10th; and, two more dates TBA. 382-0626.
Dance on Capitol Hill—Variety is this performance center's middle name. Artist Open Forum (10/10, 11/22) features works-in-progress from the latest up-and-coming talents in a variety of idioms. Learn to jig and reel at the Ceili and Celtic Halloween Party (10/31). The adjudicated Choreofest Concert Series (11/8-15) showcases the best of young choreographers. DOCH benefit: Latin Dance Night at the Nippon Kan Theater (12/5) includes flamenco, tango, and salsa performances. Underground Theater (unless otherwise specified), 340 15th E, 325-6697.
Evergreen City Ballet—I've yet to see it in action, but I hear that this regional company, under the direction of former PNB principal Wade Walthall, has crackerjack dancers. Walthall's three-act Journey (10/16-17), set to music by Rachmaninoff, Gorecki, and Nyland, explores various aspects of humanity. The Nutcracker (12/10-13), which Walthall says "is more traditional than PNB's", features a live orchestra directed by A. Brian Davenport of the Federal Way Philharmonic. In April, the company will perform Giselle. Auburn Performing Arts Center, 700 E Main, Auburn, 253-931-3043, 253-833-9039.
5th Avenue Theater—Eight bodies making loud rhythms with unconventional musical objects—I hear toddlers love this show. Stomp! returns (1/15-24). 5th Avenue Theater, 1308 Fifth, 625-1900. 292-ARTS.
Fusion Dance Company—Anthony T. Manuel's eclectic troupe presents a blend of modern, salsa, and hip-hop work in a concert shared with Seattle newcomer Deborah Birrane (3/26-27). Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway E, 325-3113.
Kaleidoscope Dance Company—These talented kids represent choreography's hopeful future. "Gift of Dance" concert (12/13) features company members, ages 8-16, performing their own highly crafted modern dance pieces under the direction of maverick dance educator Anne Green Gilbert. Roosevelt High School auditorium, 1410 NE 66th, 363-7281.
King County Performance Network—There's no excuse to miss this series. Five different performing groups, with 21 opportunities to see them at 11 King County venues (9/11-11/28). The opener, TriDANCE, features the multimedia Residue by KT/Dance, Dixie FunLee Shulman's body image solo Twirl, and the Crispin Spaeth Dance Group's extremely successful Hand Over Fist. Additional performers on the series roster include: Amii LeGendre with Sandy Cioffi, Umo Ensemble, Spectrum Dance Theater, Peggy Piacenza, D-9 Dance Collective, Junkinsmith, and Magai & Kozawa. Call 800-677-ARTS for locations.
Lela Performance Group—This duo keeps a low profile but produces some of the most inspired dance/music collaborations in the city, thanks to musical sculptor Ela Lamblin's wondrous creations. The Benefit/Showing (9/23) includes: a performance of Sirenica, a new aerial dance and poetry piece on hanging nets accompanied by a steel harp called a "lookfar"; new developments on the Kinesis pieces with butter-knife piano; door prizes; and eats. Lela Studio, 701 34th, 329-3724.
