Ballet Hispanico comes to town to dance - and teach.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

Natalia Alonso was just another pretty ballerina before a knee injury in high school made her start thinking seriously about her choice of work.

It was just about time for her to apply to colleges, and Alonso realized she might want to consider a career that couldn't be suddenly destroyed by a torn cartilage.

So she gave up dance, sort of, and went to Wesleyan University, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics.

Economics?

"That's sort of my opposite personality," she said by phone from New York.

But dance kept calling. She never entirely left the dance scene. Alonso attended summer programs with Alvin Ailey, but during the school year she hit the books.

"By the time I graduated I knew that, really, what I wanted to be wasn't sitting in an office or in a library," she said. "I decided to see if I could get back in shape and get a job."

Getting a dance job didn't take long. Alonso auditioned for Ballet Hispanico, the company that was founded by Tina Ramirez in 1970, and joined the company in January 2001.

It seemed a good fit.

"Hey," she said, "I love ballet and I'm Hispanic. I thought it could kind of work."

She's one of 13 dancers coming to Eugene this weekend for a performance and, the night before that, a Latin dance party at the Hult Center. At the Friday night dance party she and local Salsa instructor Jose Cruz will be offering dance tips.

After growing up in classical ballet, Alonso said she has enjoyed the variety of styles she dances with Ballet Hispanico.

On Saturday Ballet Hispanico will perform two pieces - "Tierra de Nadie" and "Ritmo y Ruido" - along with excerpts from the company's other repertory.

``Tierra de Nadie'' (``No Man's Land'') is an athletic piece that has dancers working on and off a set of bleachers on the stage.

"Ritmo y Ruido," an abstract piece, is "hot, sexy and exciting," Alonso said. The Boston Globe said this about the piece: The dance "managed just the right combination of grace, humor and athleticism. ... By the time it came to its twirling, running, jumping finish, the crowd was breathless and the standing ovation was a foregone conclusion.'

Now 28, Alonso still realizes that dance is not forever. But instead of thinking, as do so many dancers, that she'll open her own studio some day when her joints give out, she figures she's got that economics degree to fall back on.

"I can see myself in arts administration somehow," she said. "Arts funding, or something more behind-the-scenes of arts in America. That is probably where I would go. As a dancer you don't have a long career, so you have to see how you can blend your love and your art with something that can last a longer time."

DANCE PREVIEW

Ballet Hispanico

What: New York-based dance troupe plans two events, an educational ``dance party'' and a performace

Dance party: 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday offering Latin dance pointers; $15

Concert: 8 p.m. Saturday; $22-$35

Where: Both at the Hult Center's Silva Hall, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street

Tickets: Call 682-5000