Dancers

A foot-stomping good time was had by all.The Fiddle Puppet Dancers, an internationally known percussion dance group, visited Piney Ridge Elementary School on Wednesday."

What a difference a year -- or, more precisely, 22 months -- has made to the dancers of the Soviet Union's Donetsk Ballet.In February of last year, the Donetsk opened at the Lyric Opera House what was to have been a 15-city tour of the United States. But when the California promoters lost their expected financing, the tour was suspended and the troupe's dancers were stranded here without living expenses for more than a week, with their plight putting them in the national spotlight.Today , the Donetsk returns to the Lyric for a 10-day run of "The Nutcracker," the culmination of a monthlong, four-city tour.

Ten teen-agers from a Columbia dance company are exporting their uniquely American style of contemporary modern dance to Spain this week, serving as Maryland cultural ambassadors for a performance in Columbia's sister city.The teens will perform eight dances that express feelings and ideas about social issues during a program Saturday in Tres Cantos, Spain, the city that participates with Columbia in an annual student exchange coordinated through the Columbia Association. This is the first time a cultural group from Columbia has traveled to the sister city.

All 260 dancers in the North Carroll Recreation Council will join for their Spring Recital on June 10 at 7:30 p.m. and June 11, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the North Carroll High School, 3801 Hampstead-Mexico Road.Props, scenery and special effects will surround the lively groups of dancers in full costume. In a 90-minute show, they'll present several styles of dance, including ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, and a vocal musical production in which the performers sing as they dance.The recital culminates the past nine months of dance instruction for ages 3 through adult.

The writer-director of the movie Hairspray and dozens of former Buddy Deane Committee dancers attended a memorial service yesterday afternoon for Winston Joe "Buddy" Deane, whose rock 'n' roll television dance program inspired the musical and marked an era for a generation of Baltimore teen-agers. John Waters, whose 1988 film inspired this year's Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, was one of the friends, relatives and former co-workers who eulogized the city legend yesterday at Grace United Methodist Church.

Jillian Harris' dance career has taken her across the country and to international events, but tonight it will bring her home to Columbia, where she first learned to love movement and music. As a principal dancer with the Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, Harris will perform contemporary dance pieces as part of a seven-member company at the Jim Rouse Theater. The performance is part of the Columbia Festival of the Arts, which continues through June 24 with music, theater, comedy and dance performances at several Columbia venues.

This is the first of an occasional series about people who do the behind-the-scenes work during the holidays. The stage is set, the rehearsals over. Tonight, the world premiere of the Washington Ballet's new Nutcracker will open at the Hippodrome Theatre. Think new American, not old Europe: The Christmas party opens in a Georgetown mansion instead of a German family's parlor. And the Nutcracker looks surprisingly like George Washington. Much of the ballet remains the same: a young girl's Christmas fantasy still comes to life, and there's still the joyful music by Tchaikovsky that makes this one of the best-loved ballets of all time, and a holiday tradition.

The title character in "The Nutcracker" is almost incidental in some versions of the popular holiday ballet by Tchaikovsky. But in Ballet Theater of Annapolis' production, he steals the show.Through a stroke of good fortune, BTA has acquired Russian dancer Dmitry Tuboltsev for the season, and he is something to see.Tuboltsev, whose dancing I first saw in BTA's otherwise murky "Dracula," has a lovely technique, clean and easy jumps, and exceptional stage presence. Though at 31 he's a little mature to be playing the Nutcracker Prince, BTA is not going to be doing "Swan Lake" soon; so those who want to see male grand allegro technique and gallant partnering will have to be content with the holiday standard.

The Baltimore County liquor board has ordered a $1,000 fine and a four-day license suspension for a Towson-area nightclub that allowed two dancers to bare their breasts and pose topless for photographs with customers.Police and liquor board investigators said they observed the violations at the Original Kaos club, located off the 1500 block of E. Joppa Road, on two nights last November and December. The dancers also allowed customers to fondle them, investigators said.Liquor board rules prohibit dancers from fully baring their breasts or coming into contact with customers.

Plenty of young girls dream of performing with a prestigious ballet company, and for about 50 of them from the greater Baltimore area the first step was Sunday. During a marathon, multi-hour session at the Moving Company Dance Center in Cockeysville, the girls, and a couple of boys, auditioned to perform a version of the holiday classic "The Nutcracker" with the Moscow Ballet Company. It was the 19th year that local ballet students have auditioned to perform with the Russian troupe.