Dance Theater

One doesn't normally think of Salt Lake City as a major cultural center, but it looms large in the world of children's dance."There's a very rich tradition there," says Ann Brown, artistic director of the Chesapeake Dance Theater of Anne Arundel County. "And it remains strong."Salt Lake City figures prominently in Brown's past and future. A native of that city, Brown discovered the joy of dance at a very young age. Her aunt, Virginia Tanner, was an originator of the modern dance art form that teaches movement by drawing forth the choreographic creativity of each individual child.

Nadia Chilkovsky Nahumck, 98, a performer and transcriber of dances by Isadora Duncan and an influential teacher, died April 23 in Blue Bell, Pa. Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Ms. Nahumck came to the United States as a child and grew up in Philadelphia, where she established the Children's Dance Theater in 1944. Later known as the Philadelphia Dance Academy, it became part of the University of the Arts. Her students included Judith Jamison, now the artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

The 1991 Columbia Festival of the Arts, running today through July 7, is staging more than 60 events in 12 locations in Columbia and Howard County. Fees vary; some events are free.Highlights this weekend include performances by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Smith Theatre. The chamber music ensemble will perform tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m.Mezzo-soprano Joan Morris and prize-winning pianist William Bolcom will perform Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Smith Theatre.Mum Puppettheatre will performs its innovative puppetry for children at 2 p.m. Saturday and for adults at 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Heifetz heralds spring with VivaldiThere can't be any better entry into spring than violinist Daniel Heifetz. Last year Heifetz gave a performance of Vivaldi's popular "Four Seasons" that was so energetic and dramatic that it made what has become elevator music sound as wonderful as it did the first time you ever heard it.Tonight Heifetz, one of the country's finest violinists, returns to Temple Oheb Shalom. With an orchestra from the University of Maryland at College Park, Heifetz will play the Vivaldi masterpiece once more.

Who says dance has reached a dead end? The 2000-2001 Dance Calendar offers enough world class companies, premieres, and new (to us) foreign companies to satisfy dance connoisseurs. And one season highlight begins this weekend: the Kennedy Center in Washington is hosting an unprecedented Balanchine Celebration Sept. 12-24. The event will feature 14 of George Balanchine's masterworks performed by six acclaimed companies: The Bolshoi Ballet, The Miami City Ballet, The Pennsylvania Ballet, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, and The San Francisco Ballet.

Through energetic drumming and carefully choreographed moves, members of the Sankofa Dance Theater bring African-American history to life.On Wednesday, the Baltimore-based cultural arts organization will help commemorate Black History Month by giving a free performance at 7 p.m. at Carroll Community College."

The Columbia Festival of the Arts officially opened its 11-day affair last night with a performance from Alvin Ailey's American Dance Theater.Opening the program of three dances was "The Stack Up," by Talley Batty. This street smart work for 17 dancers is as pumped-up as fancy foot gear. Mr. Talley's piece is populated with familiar urban characters -- "cool" dudes, street corner goof-offs, loose women and everyday people all in a whirring blend of dance styles. Indeed, each style characterizes the dancer's roles.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has its Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts has the Morris Mechanic Theatre. Even the relatively small Baltimore Opera Company has its modest set of offices on Read Street.But the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Foundation of Maryland has no such permanent edifice -- nothing passers-by can point to and say, "There! Therein lies the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Foundation of Maryland.""Maybe that's why we're not considered one of the majors," says Marsha Reeves Jews, director of the foundation.

Nine dances that demonstrated the diverse forms contemporary dance can take were performed Friday night when the Phoenix Repertory Dance company of the University of Maryland Baltimore County shared its studio with choreographer David Rousseve and the Roanoke-based Laughing Bodies Dance Theater.Phoenix company members presented "Rose," a rondo form for eight women and one man. Set to music by Eirk Satie, the dance was poignant: The deliberate basic movements conveyed a sense of risk, iso-lation and journey.

Eva Anderson watches her own image appear on the television monitor in the kitchen of her Columbia home - the powerful energy of the dance caught in her figure straining under a taut cloth, like a swan snared in a net. "I like cloth," she says. "I like Spandex especially because it can do things. It can dance almost by itself, if you manipulate it right." Anderson is previewing the documentary Chronicles of a Dancer: How We Became Artists, a video retrospective of the 32 seasons of the Eva Anderson Dancers, which will premiere today at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Anderson, who has always been a creative, inventive choreographer, has been a wizard at keeping a professional dance company afloat for three decades in Maryland.