Fall Arts Guide | "So You Think You Can Dance" stars among fall's dance highlights

"Seattle Dance Project: Project Orpheus." This local company made an energetic, artful debut with four short works early this year; its second offering, a modern-dance translation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, is on a larger scale. It's choreographed by locals Wade Madsen, Eva Stone and Olivier Wevers and danced by SDP's strong ballet-meets-modern troupe, including Pacific Northwest Ballet veterans and company co-directors Timothy Lynch and Julie Tobiason.Sept.13-Oct.4,ACTTheatre. "So You Think You Can Dance Tour." If the names Chelsie, Comfort, Courtney, Gev, Joshua, Katee, Kherington, Mark, Twitch and Will mean anything to you, go buy tickets immediately for this one-night-only tour of the popular, high-energy Fox-TV dance contest. "Dancing With the Stars" it's not, for good or ill. Sept. 20, Tacoma Dome.

"Pacific Northwest Ballet: All Tharp." PNB audiences loved the company's recent rendition of Twyla Tharp's slinky, witty take on ballroom dancing, "Nine Sinatra Songs." It opens the new season, along with two world-premiere Tharp works created on PNB: "Opus 111," set to Johannes Brahms, and "Afternoon Ball," set to music by Vladimir Martynov. Tharp is a legend in both modern dance and ballet; getting a first glimpse at her new work is a rare gift. Sept. 25-Oct. 5, McCaw Hall.

"UW Chamber Dance Company." The University of Washington's splendid resident company celebrates 20 years of bringing dance history to life, with an evening that includes three reconstructions of the swirling fabric-and-light work by modern dance pioneer Loïe Fuller, the 1947 work "The Pursued" by avant-garde choreographer Joseph Gifford (who, now in his 80s, helped CDC restage the piece), and an early Tharp work, 1970's "Fugue." Oct. 9-12, Meany Theater.

"UW World Series: Alonzo King's LINES Ballet." Back in Seattle for the first time since spring 2005, King's San Francisco-based company will present the 2007 work "Long River, High Sky," a blend of ballet and the martial arts of Shaolin monks. Nov. 20-22, Meany Theater.

"Spectrum Dance Theater and Seattle Theater Group; A Chekhovian Resolution." Spectrum artistic director Donald Byrd teams up with Israeli choreographers Nir Ben Gal and Liat Dror (of the Ben Gal Dror Dance Company) to produce a dance meditation on the Middle East crisis, as part of Spectrum's three-year initiative "Beyond Dance: Promoting Awareness and Mutual Understanding." Nov. 21-22, Moore Theatre.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com