A collaboration between Park Avenue Repertory Dance Company and select Torontonian dancers and choreographers, ROTO 3 - RO(chester) TO(ronto) Contemporary Dance Series - will bring an edge to the local dance scene this weekend.

"Toronto's dance scene is so vibrant, fresher than New York City's right now," says Christine Fendley, artistic director of Park Avenue Dance. "Of course, their government supports the arts. Ours doesn't."

Now in its third year, ROTO will feature all new and original dances by choreographers from both cities. Exploring the connections between dance and other art forms seems to be a central theme.

One work to be premiered this weekend, "Moon Ladling Lava," uniquely meshes dance and music together with poetry. Fendley, Rochester poet Kitty Jospé, and Rochester composer David McGuire created the piece together using a single word - tension - for inspiration and direction. During the piece, Jospé weaves her way across the stage amidst the dancers as she recites her poetry. Another dance, "Reminiscence," was created by Fendley in conjunction with work by a different Rochester poet, Gary Lisman, and Rochester composer Michael Thireos.

"I'm fascinated with bringing in other art forms and combining them with dance," Fendley says.

One of the highlights of the concert will be a solo performed Friday only by Toronto artist Andrea Nann, founder of the company Dreamwalkers. Nann is recognized in Europe, Asia, and North America for her collaborations with artists, designers, musicians, and writers, including New York Times bestselling author Michael Ondjaate. Nann's solo is an excerpt from "SOURCE," a 2005 work that she created in collaboration with internationally renowned Erhu master and composer George Gao. In the work, dancer and musician explore their relationship to one another, and to their common Asian cultural heritage.

Also from Toronto, dancers Heidi Strauss and Darryl Tracy, founders of Four Chamber Dance Project, will on Saturday and Sunday perform a duet created together with Montreal choreographer Sylvain Émard. "Temps de Chien" explores the uncertainties, uneasiness, and desires provoked by an increasingly unsettled environment.

Visiting choreographers have long been vital to the growth of the Park Avenue company, Fendley says. The interchange of ideas that eventually led to ROTO was initiated by a series of master classes conducted by the Toronto artists at Fendley's invitation. A grant from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester helped make the ROTO performances a reality.

Fendley's own artistic influences are many, and include Martha Graham (Fendley studied under Ethel Butler, one of Graham's original students), Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, José Limón, and Merce Cunningham. While she honors their various techniques, Fendley doesn't profess to adhere more closely to one than to another.

"Of course I'm going to use contraction and release, of course I'm going to use fall and recovery - those are major tenets. But what I'm really interested in is creating a movement vocabulary that works with the dances I use. And that's going to change, and, consequently, my choreography is going to change," she says.

Fendley's company has been in continual existence since she founded it 30 years ago; that's already a heady lifespan for a local, modern dance company. And, despite what she deems a lack of funding and insufficient suitable theater space in Rochester, she is optimistic about the increase in visibility of dance. In fact, she seems to sense the imminence of a sort of urban renewal for the landscape of dance in our city.

"I'm really seeing a viable dance community," she says. "I haven't seen anything like this since the 70's. I'm thrilled."

She says that she hopes the skittishness of audiences toward dance will decline; that people will gain confidence in their ability to understand, or just plain enjoy, the artform.

"Dance is very assessable. It's right there in front of you. People need to be reminded of that," she says. "How does it make you feel? How does it connect to you? Do you feel it in your muscles?"

"It shouldn't be any different than watching a tennis game, or a football game," she continues. "Only it goes beyond athleticism. Martha Graham called us ‘the acrobats of God.' Why do people like to watch a group of deer feeding at dusk? Why do people like to watch the soaring of geese in tandem?"

Why indeed? Discover your own reasons this weekend.

ROTO 3

Eastridge High School, 2350 E Ridge Rd

Friday, October 24-Sunday, October 26

Fri-Sat 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m. | $10-$16 | 461-2766, parkavenuedanceompany.org