Pas De Deux

Ballet Theatre of Maryland opened its 35th season, and 10th with artistic director Dianna Cuatto at the helm, with the fireworks of a world-premiere ballet. Known for enchanting audiences with classic tales at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, Cuatto summoned new choreographic wizardry for her personal favorite, "The Dancing Princesses," a lesser-known Grimm fairy tale. Striving to deliver "a dramatic retelling in dance where I could create an amazing new secret world of magic," Cuatto achieved her goal and more.

Towson State University's dance company will celebrate its 25th anniversary this weekend with a gala program that goes -- choreographically speaking -- all over the map.Consider the featured works: "Panorama," a 1935 abstract dance for 33 women by Martha Graham, and the classic 19th century ballet blanc "Les Sylphides," to music of Chopin."

Midlife love The lowdown -- As its contribution to this summer's Baltimore Playwrights Festival, the Vagabond Players will look at midlife love in Susan Middaugh's A Modern Pas de Deux, opening tomorrow. Under Barry Feinstein's direction, Steve Lichtenstein portrays a middle-aged bachelor and Peggy Dorsey portrays a divorced woman. A singles dance brings their characters together in this production, which features swing dancing choreographed by Carolyn Walter. If you go -- Showtimes at the Vagabonds, 806 S. Broadway, are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 7 p.m. Sundays, through Aug. 6. Tickets are $15. Call 410-563-9135.

San Francisco Ballet journeys from the Other Coast next week to our warm and humid climes, with a program that shows off classicism, diversity and brilliance.At the Wolf Trap Festival, the company will perform "Tuning Game," a showcase for a ballerina and a consort of men, choreographed by artistic director Helgi Tomasson to the oboe concerto of John Corigliano. (Hence the title: The oboe tunes the rest of the orchestra.)Two duets are at the center of the program: "Valses Poeticos," also by Tomasson, which traces the course of a relationship through a suite of waltzes by Enrique Granados; and the "Black Swan" pas de deux from "Swan Lake," which ends with a famous sequence of 32 fouette turns.

CYD CHARISSE, 86 Dancer and actress Cyd Charisse, the long-legged Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died yesterday. Ms. Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam. She appeared in several dramatic films, but her fame came from the Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and '50s. Classically trained, she could dance anything from a pas de deux in 1946's Ziegfeld Follies to the lowdown Mickey Spillane satire of 1956's The Band Wagon (with Mr. Astaire)

* Dr. David Cogan, 85, an ophthalmologist whose studies of victims of atomic bombing in Japan led to findings on cataract development and radiation damage, died Sept. 9 of a heart attack in Chevy Chase. He was chief of neuro-ophthalmology at the National Institutes of Health's National Eye Institute from 1974 to 1985. He had been a senior medical officer at the National Eye Institute since 1985.* Eileen Anderson, 65, a perennial Los Angeles mayoral candidate who billed herself as the "Dancing Landmark" and conducted street-corner political debate wearing a bikini, died Sunday, a week after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

When Loyola College invited the Maryland Ballet to take up residency at McManus Theater, it was like "manna from heaven," says artistic director Phillip Carman.This past winter and spring, the company, suffering financial shortfalls made worse by the recession and the Persian Gulf war, canceled two weekends of performances at the Baltimore Museum of Art.The Loyola offer allows the ballet to close its fifth anniversary season with performances tomorrow through Sunday, featuring "Tarantella" -- a pas de deux by George Balanchine -- and two world premieres by Carman.

Choo-San Goh, whose choreographic genius came to an abrupt end in 1987, when he died of AIDS at the age of 39, has not been forgotten. The Washington Ballet, where he was resident choreographer for eight years, maintains the 14 ballets created by the Singaporean artist and next week will bring back three for a benefit performance.Co-sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Singapore, the program will include "Double Contrasts," an elegant nocturne in black and white, and "Synonyms," both created in 1978; and the pas de deux from "Momentum," which won an award for choreography at the 1983 International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria.

Artistic director Dianna Cuatto began Ballet Theatre of Maryland's 2004-2005 season at new artistic heights in the neo-classic "Italian Symphonette" and innovative "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Her choreography for the performances Friday and Saturday at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts challenged and showcased the dancers, moving the company in exciting new directions. Felix Mendelssohn's "Italian Symphony" is a romantic work that evokes the color of the Italian landscape. This was reflected in Cuatto's choreography, created in 2001 to honor choreographer George Balanchine.

Ballet Theatre of Annapolis (BTA) ended an extraordinary season last weekend with a nod to the future in a program that focused on youth in its fairy-tale subject matter and by showcasing young dancers. Forty-six dance students from Anne Arundel County and the Eastern Shore performed with the troupe's professional dancers. The children's joy and pride were contagious, adding enjoyment to the program. Newly choreographed works by the theater's prolific artistic director, Edward Stewart, spotlighted the strengths of his 26-member company and the youngsters who joined them.