The economic downturn is still hurting some of Tucson's local troupes, but ZUZI! Dance Company will start a full schedule with a show next weekend.
Enjoying the benefit of having its own theater, ZUZI! brings back its border work, Crossing Boundaries, at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Oct. 1 and 2, at ZUZI's Theater in the Historic YWCA, 738 N. Fifth Ave.; 629-0237; www.zuzimoveit.org.
ZUZI! follows up with the No Frills Cheap Thrills, a choreographers' showcase, 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Oct. 29 and 30.
Choreographer Doug Nielsen brings the UA Dance Ensemble to perform "Looking Up/Looking Down" among the paintings and photos from his own art collection, now on view in Thanks for Being With Us at the Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Ave.; 624-2333; www.tucsonmuseumofart.org. The show is at 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 10.
Ballet Tucson will kick off its season Halloween weekend with "Jubilee," "Graduation Ball" and "The Gift" at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 29; 2 and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 30; and 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 31, at Stevie Eller; 903-1445; www.ballettucson.org.
UApresents makes November jump with two modern dance shows at UA Centennial Hall. Famed tapper Savion Glover dips into flamenco in SoLo in TiME at 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 13. Paul Taylor Dance Company performs its high classic modern at 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 20; 621-3341; www.uapresents.org.
Several modern companies are waiting until spring to perform. NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre plans a regular concert in April, artistic director Katie Rutterer says. Next summer, the dancers are looking forward to Flow, a work staged in the dry Santa Cruz.
The new Latino/modern company Safos Dance Theatre is also hoping for an April show, artistic director Yvonne Montoya says, featuring some new works and a reprise of the multimedia piece "Their Souls Swallowed by the Sun," about the deaths of migrants.
The Latina Dance Project, a company that performs nationally, will put on a full-evening concert, Slumber of Reason, under the auspices of Borderlands, also in April.
Thom Lewis Dance, absent from Tucson stages last year, has no shows pinned down yet. Lewis says he's gotten the cash together; the problem lies in finding a venue available at the same time he and his dancers are.
FUNHOUSE movement theater is planning no shows for the second year in a row. Artistic director Lee Anne Hartley is taking advantage of the downtime to work on outreach to the schools and to hone her choreography. She'll debut one of her pieces, "Tangled," a dance for six, at the ZUZI's No Frills Cheap Thrills.
