Alvin Ailey

TONIGHT, when the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs at a sold-out gala fund-raiser at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, supporters will toast the evening as a prelude to the company's residency in Maryland. They will also cross their fingers that they can pull it off.Assembling a successful residency will depend on the generosity of public and private sources of money during precarious economic times. The prospect of losing grants and dancing dates to the internationally famous dance troupe also leaves some Baltimore dancers nervous about the residency's effect on the local, struggling dance scene.

Mars exhibit Journey to Mars at the National Geographic Museum in Washington. Its newest exhibit, Mars 2K4, opens today and runs through April 25 in Explorers Hall. The exhibit explores the history of Mars from a cultural and scientific perspective, including a gallery of old and new Mars images and a copy of the famous radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds that caused panic among listeners who believed it to be a legitimate newscast. An interactive simulation of recent Mars missions and a full-scale model of the Mars Rover that is exploring the planet's surface are part of the exhibit.

Dance premiere by Alvin Ailey groupThe world premiere of Donald Byrd's "A Dance at the Gym" and three performances of the renowned signature piece "Revelations" will highlight the appearances of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre Thursday through next Sunday.Tickets to Thursday's 7:30 p.m. opening night celebration to benefit the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre Foundation of Maryland, which sponsors the company's state-wide residency, are $250 and $100. The former includes a pre- and post-performance reception; the latter includes only a post-performance reception.

Last summer, Roxanne Listy watched in amazement as Renee Robinson and Desmond Richardson of the Alvin Ailey dance company moved their bodies across the stage at the Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival in Lee, Mass.This summer the 17-year-old Annapolis girl will be working with the two famous dancers at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company in New York City. The group is one of America's foremost contemporary dance companies.Roxanne, a recent graduate of Annapolis Senior High School, will spend two years with the Ailey Certificate Program, taking 15 to 18 classes a week in modern dance, jazz, dance history and ballet.

Dance on the EdgeWhat: Donald Byrd/The GroupWhen: Today and Saturday at 8 p.m.Where: Stephens Hall Theatre, Towson State University, 7900 York RoadTickets: $11-$15Call: (410) 830-3369 Donald Byrd's new dance is provocatively titled "Bristle," but in a recent telephone interview the New York-based choreographer's demeanor was smooth and easy as he explained how a former Tufts University theater major made the switch to dance."My drama coach always said I was a mover." Mr. Byrd says. "Movement is language, and language is often shaped."

Four years after Baltimore's Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Foundation presented its first performance, members of the cultural community are struggling to find ways to salvage bits of the internationally acclaimed ensemble's presence in Maryland.The foundation, created to bring New York's Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater here for performances and to develop outreach programs including summer dance camps, last month quietly folded -- director-less and in debt.Now, leaders of local arts circles are looking for ways to save the summer camps.

The Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, a cross between the professional company and the dance school, performed to a sold out house Sunday night at Shriver Hall. The Repertory Ensemble exposes young dancers to a variety of choreography and gives audiences a chance to see dancers coming down the line.Given the strong dancing of the 10 company members in the program's three works, the future looks good.Despite some last-minute program changes and cast scrambling, the cast was in high gear. Opening the program was Meridians," choreographed by Andre Tyson to the frenzied rhythms of composer Antonio Carlos Scott.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Two Baltimore School for the Arts students won medals yesterday in the NAACP's "Olympics of the Mind" competition.Willia Noel Montague, 18, won the gold medal in dance and was selected to perform at the awards ceremony.For the second year, Warren Wolf Jr., 16, took home a bronze medal. He won in music composition for a jazz piece, "Tom and Jerry." He said he plans to return next year to try for a gold medal.More than 700 local medalists vied for national awards in the ACT-SO (Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics)

On The Weekend Watch:A DANCING PREVIEW -- A week in advance of the company's much anticipated performances in Baltimore, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is featured in a two-hour PBS package on Friday. At 9 p.m. (channels 22, 67 and 26), "Great Performances Dance in America" features two works by the company, "For Bird -- With Love" and "Episodes." And at 10 p.m., "Going Home: Alvin Ailey Remembered" is an hour-long tribute to the late dancer/choreographer who founded the nation's premiere black dance troupe.

Members of Congress are often elected after years serving in state legislatures, major league ballplayers are fostered on farm teams, and, in the competitive world of professional dance, the major companies cull from a second string. Tomorrow and Saturday, Ailey II, one of the best known of the dance feeder companies, will perform in Maryland. Tomorrow night the group dances at a sold-out performance at the Johns Hopkins University. On Saturday dancers will present two performances at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Black Rock Center for the Arts in Germantown.