Forward movement and valiant struggles

The Boston dance scene continues to dwindle alarmingly, at least in terms of visits from major touring companies. If the performing arts in this city had as driven and daring a fund-raiser/advocate as the Museum of Fine Arts has in its controversial director, Malcolm Rogers, Boston might by now have a proper opera house to lure international troupes. There's a glimmer of hope in that direction in reports that the Wang Center for the Performing Arts plans to expand its empire with a new opera house, location to be determined but possibly at Fan Pier.

Meanwhile, the region's small modern dance companies struggle valiantly, often with impressive results. As for the city's three major presenters - Dance Umbrella, Boston Ballet, and the BankBoston Celebrity Series - each offers only one major dance event in the fall '99 season, and there's no one else picking up the slack. (This doesn't count Boston Ballet's annual "Nutcracker" extravaganza, at the Wang Theatre Nov. 26-Jan. 2, which is in an entertainment category by itself.)

This is also, sadly, the first year in over a decade that the Mark Morris Dance Group won't be visiting Boston. Morris and Dance Umbrella, which had presented the company here regularly, got a divorce, with neither party discussing the details, and scheduling didn't work out with the Celebrity Series, which is eager to bring Morris back. So sparse is this season's schedule that even "Riverdance" gets a mention: The glib and glitzy Irish dance show returns to the Wang Theatre Oct. 28-Nov. 7.

The most puzzling news in Boston dance is Boston Ballet's three-year appointment of 26-year-old British prodigy Christopher Wheeldon as principal guest choreographer. The company already had - and has now let go - an excellent choreographer, Daniel Pelzig, who had created a string of successes for the troupe. Wheeldon and Pelzig share the Ballet's opening program, Oct. 14-24 at the Wang. Wheeldon premieres his new version of "The Firebird," the 1910 classic to Stravinsky's score. Pelzig reprises his 1994 comic hit, "The Princess and the Pea," easily the funniest ballet the company has ever mounted.

Otherwise, the classical dance schedule is slim. The Massachusetts Youth Ballet, an outgrowth of teacher Jacqueline Cronsberg's highly regarded schools in Hopkinton and Waltham, is a group of gifted teenagers who dance at a professional standard - to the point where the George Balanchine Trust permits their performance of several of the master's works. They'll dance three Balanchine pieces - "Concerto Barocco," "Serenade," and "Divertimento No. 15" - in a program called "ByGeorge!" Sept. 18 and 19 at the Casey Theatre at Regis College in Weston. The performance on the 18th is preceded by a talk by the Balanchine Foundation's eminent critic and historian Nancy Goldner.

The Ballet Theatre of Boston kicks off its 14th season with its fifth annual Fall Festival on Oct. 3 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Publick Theatre and adjoining Christian A. Herter Park in Brighton. The afternoon of clowns, crafts, flamenco, and Irish dance demonstrations culminates with BTB performing variations from "Sleeping Beauty," "Cinderella," "Swan Lake," and artistic director Jose Mateo's new "Rotarota." BTB performs its "Nutcracker" at the Emerson Majestic Theatre, Dec. 2-26.

Umbrella returns

As usual, modern dance offerings are more plentiful than ballet. Dance Umbrella, which briefly went out of business last season due to lack of funds but bounced back thanks to faithful supporters, continues its commitment to hip-hop with the Boston premiere of France's Compagnie Kafig, Oct. 21-23 at the Emerson Majestic Theatre. Boston's oldest hip-hop troupe, the Floorlords, makes a special appearance at each performance.

Dance Collective, Boston's oldest surviving modern dance company and one of its best, starts its 26th season with Oct. 15 and 16 performances at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge. On the program are premieres by co-artistic directors Dawn Kramer and Micki Taylor-Pinney, and by artistic associate Sun Ho Kim.

Four distinguished Massachusetts choreographers - Marcus Schulkind, Carol Somers, Terese Freedman, and Jim Coleman - offer premieres in an "East/West Project" they'll present at the Studio Theater at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley Sept. 24 and 25, and at Green Street Studios in Cambridge Sept. 30-Oct. 3. Green Street is also the venue for performances by the ever-provocative Boston-based Caitlin Corbett Dance Company, Dec. 17-19.

At the other end of the state, the perennially popular Paul Taylor Dance Company appears at the Hunter Center for the Performing Arts at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams on Oct. 2. On Oct. 9, MASS MoCA and the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival team up to present Streb, the airborne, bouncing-off-the-walls company of Elizabeth Streb.

The BankBoston Celebrity Series also presents the Taylor company, in Oct. 29-31 performances at the Shubert Theatre, with two different programs and four Boston premieres. And as part of its Emerging Artists program, the Celebrity Series offers the Boston-based Prometheus Dance, with choreography by Diane Arvanites-Noya and Tommy Neblett, at Boston University's Tsai Performance Center Nov. 20. Prometheus also performs in the Boston Conservatory Faculty Performance Concert at the Boston Conservatory Theatre this Friday and Saturday.And Boston University's Dance Program presents a "Dance Showcase," with work by Peter DiMuro, Margot Parsons, and other highly regarded choreographers, Oct. 1 and 2 at the Sargent Dance Studio/Theatre.

Stomp, the English dance/percussion sensation whose eccentric instruments include garbage can lids and cigarette lighters, returns to the Wilbur Theatre for a run starting Nov. 19, presented by Broadway in Boston.

The fall lineup at the Dance Complex in Cambridge includes "Recovering Vixens," a dance/theater/video piece by Debra Bluth, performed by debra bluth/Jesterfly on Oct. 15-17, and new and nearly new works by Brian Crabtree and Daniel McCusker, Nov. 12-14. Crabtree is also one of five dance makers presenting premieres under the auspices of the Choreographers Group, at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center Nov. 5-7.

And, finally, World Music brings the celebrated Les Ballets Africains from the Republic of Guinea to Sanders Theatre in Cambridge for a Nov. 15 performance of "Evolution," a total theater production on the theme of Africa's cultural heritage being passed down from generation to generation.