Dance Companies

If you want to see truly exceptional, big-name dance this year, you'll have to hop in your car and head south on I-95. Major league dance companies are coming to the area -- such as the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, the Martha Graham Company or the Jose Limon Company -- but they'll be appearing in Washington.Despite the fact Baltimore is not a required stop for most national companies, it does have a dance scene.Several local dance companies will perform -- in spite of funding problems and inconsistent audience development.

Translating the history of Annapolis into dance was a daunting task for Ann Brown.By her own admission, the Arnold dance teacher was nervous about creating a program for children that tells the city's early history."

Dance companies see winter coming long before the rest of us. Many of their performance dates have been booked since May, and their season brochures have long since gone to the printers for distribution to potential subscribers. The Washington Ballet was among the early birds this year, with internet subscriptions offering a 50 percent savings by simply entering the promotion code "TWBSPECIAL. " Four different subscription packages are available, but fans must not procrastinate because the special deals are only good until Monday, Sept.

Batsheva Dance Company is named for its patron, the Baroness Bathsheba de Rothschild. Now Israel's leading dance company, it kicks off the Kennedy Center's five-week "Art of the State: Israel at 50" festival of music, dance, theater, film and -- to end with a bang -- fireworks and a son-et-lumiere show.Batsheva's contribution will be a full-length dance-theater work called "Anaphase" by its artistic director, Ohad Naharin. The title refers to a part of the process of cell division; the movement considers the group as the cell, the dancers as its energies and components.

The Dance on the Edge Series opened its season at the Baltimore Museum of Art this weekend with the New York-based Randy Warshaw Dance Company. Mr. Warshaw and his agreeable troupe of six technically astute dancers presented two pieces, each distinctly different in tone.The bleak opening number, "Event Horizon," created in 1989, was presented before Mr. Warshaw's 1987 work, the smoother "Fragile Anchor." After all was said and danced, this reversal proved a satisfactory arrangement.Many would describe "Event Horizon" as indicative of a New York style.

Mino Nicolas knew next to nothing about modern dance when he responded to an audition notice during his student days at Towson State University in the early 1970s.Raised by Greek immigrant parents in Hamilton, he remembers being "dressed in a flannel shirt and blue jeans and walking into a room [at TSU] where the dancers wore leotards. I had no idea what this was all about. I had no idea who choreographers like Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey were -- which is funny now."It's funny because Mr. Nicolas is now artistic director of the Doris Humphrey Repertory Dance Company, which is dedicated to presenting the late choreographer's work.

This weekend, American Dance Artists returns with its spring show to its favorite near-home venue in Brooklyn Park. The major work will be choreographed to John Lennon's 1971 hit "Imagine" and features the company in solo, duets and ensemble work. The show opens tonight at 8 p.m. at the Chesapeake Arts Center, with additional performances at 8 p.m. tomorrow and at 3 p.m. Sunday. American Dance Artists is an exuberant, young company formed in spring 2002 by Linthicum-based artistic director Adrienne Canterna, 22, recipient of the 1998 gold medal in the USA International Ballet Competition, and her sister Ashley Canterna, also a national medalist.

PUPILS AT Taneytown Elementary School sat in awe last week as members of the Chinese Folk Dance Company mimicked the moves of birds and told tales through dance. The hourlong presentation was sponsored by the school's PTO through the Young Audiences of Maryland program, said Maggie Weicht, PTO president. "We do about 500 shows a year," said Amy Chin, leader of the five-member dance troupe, which is based in New York City. Before performing in Taneytown, the group had performed in Silver Spring and on the Eastern Shore.

WHEN YOU name a clothing company Clingons Activewear, maybe you could expect some trouble. As far as Kathy Demshak was concerned, Clingons was the perfect name for the women's aerobics outfits she produced in the basement of her parents' home in Millersville, best describing the fluidity of the clinging fabric called Spandex, which she incorporated into her designs. Sure enough, a few years ago there was a trademark skirmish. But the adversaries were not the owners of all things Star Trek, as you might think, trying to protect their infamous villains, the Klingons.

The biggest news in the 1992-1993 dance season isn't who is dancing, it's who isn't going to appear in Baltimore this year. In one season, the city has managed to lose the Maryland Ballet, Kathy Wildberger's contemporary Path Dance Company, and Juliet Forrest's company, the Forrest Collection. Economic strain and funding cuts have wreaked havoc on an already precarious dance community. Those companies still standing and dancing count themselves fortunate, but struggling.Kathy Wildberger's flight to New York isn't that surprising.