Royal Ballet dancers Alina Cojocaru as Manon and Johan Kobborg as Des Grieux. Photo: Bill Cooper

1. "Solos: Restored and Late Models" at Green Street Studios, Cambridge, Mass., June 2-3, 2006. Marcus Schulkind has a special gift for finding solo dancers who bring passion and clarity to his choreographic miniatures, compact pieces that pack a punch. This benefit presents new work made for the gifted Elizabeth Waterhouse, now dancing with the Frankfurt Ballet, plus a pair of repertory works that channel cranky-brilliant Randy Newman. Also included is a rarely seen excerpt from Talley Beatty's 1947 "Southern Landscape" danced by Clarence Brooks. I'll be on hand Friday night to conduct an onstage interview with Schulkind following the show.

2. "Benita Bike DanceArt" at Boston University Dance Theatre, Boston, Mass., June 2-3, 2006. You can go home again. Benita Bike left Boston in 1990 for the better weather of Los Angeles, but returns with repertory work and a video review of twenty-five years of dancing. The most intriguing description from her press release is the dance she calls "Between Heaven and Earth -- In Search of the Spirit," a quintet set to the Muslim call to prayer, a Sudanese chanting of the Koran, and one of Hildegard von Bingen's musical devotions.

3. "Java Kawistara" at the Dance Complex, Cambridge, Mass., June 3 and June 16, 2006. Three Indonesian dancers specializing in the refined court dance of Central Java, the lively folk and jaipongan dance of Sunda (West Java), and the more forceful, martial art pencak silat of Sundan present an authentic style we don't usually get to see. This show should be great for kids and multiculturalists alike.

4. "Irish Connections Festival" at The Irish Cultural Centre of New England Canton, Mass., June 9-11, 2006. Irish dance evangelist Kieran Jordan has curated an exciting stage of Irish dance styles for this annual festival, ranging from classic Irish dancing and body percussion to clogging and work that blends Irish and contemporary modern dance forms. And that's not counting the dancing you'll do in the aisles during the musical numbers.

5. "Elizabeth Streb" at Yale University Theatre, New Haven, Conn., June 10-11, 2006. We don't usually list events as far afield as New Haven, but during the city's annual Arts and Ideas festival, the athletic aesthete takes off for the "Wild Blue Yonder" before her airborne company touches down at the New ICA theatre this coming fall. You heard it here first.

6. "Marcia B. Siegel" at Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Mass., June 16, 2006. Twyla Tharp's career overlaps almost exactly with the writing life of noted critic and dance historian Marcia B. Siegel, who astonishingly enough has seen almost everything Tharp has ever done at least once. She reads from her comprehensive "Howling Near Heaven : Twyla Tharp and the Reinvention of Modern Dance" at the independent bookstore, with other readings and book signings in Concord, at Jacob's Pillow and elsewhere later this summer.

7. "Royal Ballet in Manon" at Wang Theatre, Boston, Mass., June 15-17, 2006. The Royal Ballet returns to Boston with the emotionally-loaded "Manon," choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan. The glamorous and doomed courtesan is being danced by Tamara Rojo alternating with Alina Cojocaru and Zenaida Yanowsky, with special appearances by former Boston Ballet dancer Sarah Lamb in two performances as Lescaut's mistress.

8. "Beyond the Steps: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater" on PBS stations, June 21, 2006. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's trip to Russia, Judith Jamison working with hip hopper Rennie Harris and Robert Battle, and the company's move into its new, multimillion dollar facility in Manhattan are featured on PBS' Great Performances Dance in America. Check local times.

9. "Frederic Franklin Returns" at Jacob's Pillow, Becket, Mass., June 24, 2006. The elegant and always witty Franklin, featured in the recent documentary "Ballets Russes," appears at the Pillow to celebrate his 92nd birthday and share insider reminiscences.

10. "ASzURe & Artists" at Jacob's Pillow, Becket, Mass., June 29 - July 2, 2006. Astonishing choreographer Aszure Barton is such a big deal right now that Baryshnikov's organization is said to be negotiating her contracts. Last summer her company presented a mind-boggling erotic duet at the center of "Lascilo Perdure" where the woman bit her partner's tongue for four minutes. More recently, she choreographed the new Broadway production of "Threepenny Opera" starring Cyndi Lauper. At the Pillow, she will be unveiling "Over/Come," set to early '50s love ballads.

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