Onstage abundance, offstage struggle

This year, local dance audiences have been treated to an impressive mix of old and new, traditional and cutting-edge. Companies representing some of modern dance's seminal choreographers -- Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Murray Louis, Paul Taylor, and Alvin Ailey -- enlivened area stages, while innovative world premieres also left their mark, including Lucinda Childs's ''Ten Part Suite" for Boston Ballet, Dana Reitz's ''Sea Walk" for herself, and veteran dancers Sara Rudner and Christine Uchida, presented by Summer Stages Dance.

For local dancers, though, it hasn't gotten any easier. As cultural organizations all over compete for dwindling funds, it has become harder for dance groups and independent choreographers to keep their heads above water. This year saw the demise of one of the area's most well-established modern-dance troupes, the 33-year-old Dance Collective. Happily, the eclectic Snappy Dance entered into a new partnership with Boston Center for the Arts, giving the troupe a much-needed regular performing home.

The trend within the local dance community has been toward solidifying a cooperative spirit. More and more independent dancers and small companies are pooling their resources for joint productions. The area's two most active teaching/performance studios, the Dance Complex and Green Street Studios in Cambridge, offered opportunities for collective ventures such as the Dance Complex's Shared Choreographers' concerts, which presented work by more than a dozen emerging choreographers. With the Dance Action Network listserve providing an online venue for everything from job postings to concert announcements, communication among members of the dance community has become stronger and easier. And with the recent hiring of Ruth Birnberg as full-time executive director, the Boston Dance Alliance is poised to become a vital central clearinghouse for dance information in the area. Birnberg, a stalwart of the dance scene for many years as choreographer and dancer, has instituted professional-development forums and workshops and a new fiscal sponsorship program that lets artists without nonprofit status raise funds and apply for grants through the organization.

The Bank of America Celebrity Series and the Wang Center for the Performing Arts led off the year with ''Dance Across the City," a full day of workshops, classes, and performances highlighting the vitality of area dance. Designed for enthusiasts of all ages and abilities, the free event featured dancers ranging from the young performers of OrigiNation to Boston Ballet and such internationally acclaimed companies as Mark Morris Dance Group and Paul Taylor Dance Company. Another galvanizing event was a powerful and moving benefit performance at Boston Conservatory honoring the late teacher/dancer/choreographer Julie Ince Thompson. Members of the Graham and Limon companies joined with such performers as Sean Curran, Donald Byrd, Marcus Schulkind, and Prometheus Dance to celebrate Thompson's personal spirit and artistic legacy in ''Make of Yourselves a Light."

Both the Celebrity Series ''Boston Marquee" and World Music/CRASHarts continued to provide showcases for local companies and independent choreographers. CRASHarts' ''Dance Straight Up" and ''Ten's the Limit" were the area's most prestigious mixed local showcases, highlighted by performances as diverse and memorable as Debra Bluth's heart-rending solo ''Dodge" and Collage Dance Ensemble's ritualistic ensemble piece ''Duality."

For imported productions, the Celebrity Series stuck to tried-and-true fare such as the indomitable Mark Morris Dance Group, which brought a mixed program highlighted by the Boston premiere of the flamenco-inspired ''From Old Seville." World Music/CRASHarts was more adventurous, with offerings ranging from Balinese dance to Savion Glover's ''Improvography II" and ''Classical Savion" and the Boston debut of young firebrand Robert Battle's company, Battleworks. The most memorable program was a riveting performance by South African dancer/choreographer Vincent Mantsoe. His dramatic, postmodern ''Afro-fusion" aesthetic, enriched by martial arts, Asian dance, modern dance, and even ballet, was stunningly original.

An unlikely presenter, the Harvard Law School, commissioned one of the year's most provocative new works by the Washington-area-based choreographer Liz Lerman. Her ''Small Dances About Big Ideas" vividly tackled the issue of genocide in a 40-minute work blending dance, sociopolitical text, music, and theatrical imagery.

In the classical arena, Jose Mateo's Ballet Theatre seems to get more solid with every season. Mateo is choreographing some of his most moving work, such as this year's exquisite ''Presage," inspired by his visit to Poland. In size, stature, and budget, Boston Ballet is in a league of its own, and the company has come a long way under the tutelage of Mikko Nissinen, whose artistic vision has reshaped personnel, training, and repertoire. This year saw impeccable productions of ballets ranging from Bournonville's ''La Sylphide," a linchpin of the romantic repertoire given a beautifully distilled and vividly theatrical restaging by Sorella Englund, to cutting-edge works by William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, and Lucinda Childs in the dazzling contemporary program ''Falling Angels." The company also presented a luminous production of ''Sleeping Beauty."

In Western Massachusetts, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival continued to reign as a mecca of diverse, powerhouse programming. Performances this summer ranged from such little known troupes as Australia's quirky Chunky Move to blockbuster favorites (Morris, Glover, Graham). Highlights were many, though there were two personal favorites: The all-male New Zealand troupe Black Grace presented a strikingly imaginative fusion of traditional Samoan/Maori dance and contemporary styles that was marked by breathtaking athletic virility and heartfelt directness. And Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal blazed into the Pillow with US premieres of two genre-defying dances by Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman and Belgian choreographer Stijn Celis that proved stunning additions to the contemporary ballet repertoire.