Entertainment

GOTTA DANCE – GRACE AND HARMONY ONSTAGE THROUGHOUT THE CITY

NEW York is a sizzling dance fiesta. For part of the summer, you can even take your sweetie dancing alfresco to big bands under the starlight, around the drought-dried fountain slap in the middle of Lincoln Center Plaza.

And during all of June, America’s two great classic ballet companies, New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater, are at the Center, ABT occupying the Metropolitan Opera House and City Ballet at the New York State Theater.

This year, the highlight of the last weeks of ABT’s summer season, ending July 6, is a major revival of its wonderfully exciting production of Marius Petipa’s fine old classic ballet, “Le Corsaire,” staged by Anna-Marie Holmes. On this ballet’s first night, June 17, ABT’s new star, Carlos Acosta, is the Pirate Chief himself.

ABT’s full complement of stars – including the recently promoted Gillian Murphy and Marcelo Gomes, as well as all the usual biggies – will be in full force, during the weeks of “The Merry Widow,” that “Corsaire,” “Giselle” and “Swan Lake.”

Events to note: June 22 is the first “Giselle” and marks the retirement of the prima-ballerina Susan Jaffe, who has been with the company for 22 years. The evenings of June 8 and June 10 are the final performances this season of the company’s extraordinarily successful “New Masters” program, consisting of Frederick Ashton’s “The Dream” (new earlier this season) and George Balanchine’s “Symphony in C.” Call (212) 362-6000.

Speaking of Balanchine, on June 30, New York City Ballet is bringing its own nine-week season to a close.

There are still two world premieres to be staged completing this year’s Diamond Project of new choreography.

Christopher Wheeldon’s new ballet arrives on June 13, and Miriam Mahdaviani’s new work comes in June 21. The season ends on June 30, after a week of performances of Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Box Office: (212) 870-5570.

When City Ballet and ABT leave the Plaza, Lincoln Center dance is far from finished. Dance plays a vital part in the annual Lincoln Center Out of Doors series with a mass of free performances in the Bandshell, and, of course, it is part of the Lincoln Center Festival.

This year, the Festival is host to three dance companies. The Festival starts on July 8 at the Metropolitan Opera House with St. Petersburg’s Kirov Ballet giving the Western premiere of its new – and what it claims to be the “historically correct” version – of “La Bayadere,” seen for the first time in St. Petersburg last month.

The company plays the Met for 16 performances with, incredibly, a different principal cast for each performance. “La Bayadere” is to be performed five times, ‘Swan Lake” debuts on July 11 and will have five performances, and there will be three performances, starting July 15, of “Don Quixote.”

As a special treat, the Kirov will also present its first New York showing of its staging of George Balanchine’s full-evening plotless ballet, “Jewels,” which will have three performances, opening on July 18.

At the New York State Theater, starting on July 24, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company makes its third appearance at the Lincoln Center Festival, offering two programs in four performances, each including Cunningham’s latest ballet, “Loose Time.”

Rounding out the Festival’s dance activities is Jawole Wille Jo Zollar’s Urban Bush Women, who are combining with members of the National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique to give Jo Zollar’s “Shadow’s Child’ at the small Clark Studio Theater for four performances, opening July 9.

Lincoln Center Festival box office: (212) 721-6500.

At Lincoln Center Out of Doors, which runs Aug. 3 through 25, all performances are free, and details are available at http://www.lincolncenter.org or the Lincoln Center Out of Doors hot line at (212) 875-5108. Among the dance highlights are the Jose Limon Dance Company (Aug. 8) and the Trisha Brown Dance Company (Aug. 21).

There is plenty of dance at the Joyce Theater during the summer. The high-velocity, daring antics of that oddball dance company Streb are on tap through June 16. That group is followed by Pascal Rioult’s Dance Theater (June 18 to 22); then, The Pilobolus Dance Company, with three premieres, is in session for a month, from June 24 to July 20.

Following Pilobolus, there is a group from Oregon Ballet Theater through July 27, then the annual two-week summer season of Eliot Feld’s Ballet Tech (July 29 – Aug. 10), and finally ballet’s most renowned drag-out drag act, Les Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo (July 29 through Aug. 10).

The Joyce Theater is at 175 Eighth Ave., at 19th Street. Call (212) 242-0800

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