Dance Theater

Illusion show Abracadabra, alakazam - You will take your children to the Ace of Hearts' "Abra-KID-Abra" magic show, Tuesday 10:30 a.m- 11:15 a.m. at Federal Hill Park. See magic tricks designed to entertain children and adults. Tricks use animals, props and children from the audience. The event is part of the Baltimore Office of Promotion's Kids' Stuff program. The magic show takes place on Warren Street across from the Inner Harbor's Rash Field. Admission is free. For more information, call 1-888-BALTIMORE . Dance theater You should be dancing!

Members of Surge Dance Company began offering instruction last spring at Harbor Arts Center in Federal Hill and will expand its program this season.Classes for children and adults at all levels of experience are now being offered in swing, ballroom, jazz, ballet and modern dance, as well as theater and singing, Tuesdays and Thursdays through May 15. The teachers are Ruth Skrzesz, a singer and actress, and dancer Stephanie Thibeault.Harbor Arts Center is in Olive Branch United Methodist Church, Fort Avenue and South Charles Street.

The Ballet Theatre of Annapolis continues to attract high-quality dancers to its 1998-1999 roster.On the heels of news that the local company has secured the services of Zhirou Zou, formerly one of three principal dancers with the National Ballet of China, comes word that five talented American ballerinas also will be making their Maryland Hall debuts with the company this fall. They are Bridget Ansinn, Rachel Fanning, Aimee Litwiller, Heather Merritt and Colleen Potts.Ansinn, who lives in Doylestown, Pa., has performed with the Dance Theater of Pennsylvania, Dance Elite, Playhouse Dance Theater of Point Park College and the Pennsylvania BalletCompany.

How many times can we hear the music of "Porgy and Bess"? Luckily, many, as the opera is ubiquitous in this year of George Gershwin's centennial.Dallas Black Dance Theater is bringing a ballet version of Catfish Row to the Kennedy Center this weekend, featuring a legendary performance of the music.Hope Clarke, who choreographed the Opera America/Houston Grand Opera co-production of "Porgy" that toured the country in 1987, created this dance interpretation. The score is the jazz recording made by Miles Davis in 1958, with additional music by pops conductor Richard Hyman.

In yesterday's announcement of the Kennedy Center's dance schedule, a contact number was omitted. For tickets and information about Kennedy Center events, call 202-467-4600.The Sun regrets the errors.Next season at the Kennedy Center features some smashing dance, including the American debut of the Stanislavsky Ballet from Moscow and the local debut of the Royal Swedish Ballet, which until now has performed its U.S. engagements only in New York.The center's "America Dancing" series will present four nTC commissioned collaborations between noted American choreographers and jazz composer-performers.

Students can play the didgeridoo, learn the art of songwriting and build their own Native American flutes at the fourth annual Common Ground on the Hill next week in Carroll County.While dabbling in the arts, they might learn about other cultures.The weeklong celebration of music and the arts opens Sunday at Western Maryland College in Westminster, with courses and performances designed to build bridges between cultures."I'm looking forward to meeting with new people and reuniting with some of the musicians I've performed with in the past," said Peggy Seeger, a songwriter and instrumentalist who has taken part in nearly 100 recordings.

Washington - Mary Day, grande dame of dance here, has stepped down as director of Washington Ballet, and now the task of packing up has begun.Her office is crowded with photographs and gilded, beribboned award certificates; stuffed with dance books - historical artifacts in themselves; and piled with memorabilia, from programs to dried flowers. Just outside the door, a coat rack holds dirndls and peasant skirts from some 19th-century ballet."I start reading, and I get so interested in everyone," Day says, sounding helpless and nostalgic.

Dance on the Edge has gone over the edge.Baltimore's only consistent presenter of modern dance for 11 years, Towson University's Dance on the Edge closed down after losing about $15,000 on its March presentation of Lines Contemporary Ballet from San Francisco.The 12-member company was at Towson for a weeklong residency that included a choreography workshop with its artistic director, Alonzo King. Its fee for the week of classes and performances was $25,000. There were additional expenses for marketing, advertising and technical support, but most of these were donated by university personnel.

When last we met up with Alicia Graf, back in April, the tall teen-ager from Columbia had just finished six months with Dance Theater of Harlem and was about to perform with the ballet company on its annual spring trip to Washington's Kennedy Center.She hadn't made her New York debut yet. When it came last month, it brought forth a fanfare of superlatives from Anna Kisselgoff, chief dance critic of the New York Times, who praised Graf's assured and serpentine performance as the Siren in "The Prodigal Son."