DESTINATION: COLORADO.

A peek at summer finds the peaks of Colorado offering a wide range of dance. Despite last summer's high-profile closing of DanceAspen and the lower profile demise this winter of the Glenwood Springs Dance Festival, Colorado seems to be confirming its status as a Mecca for everything from experimental to traditional dance.

JOFFREY BALLET OF CHICAGO

TELLURIDE--Entering year three of a five-year residency (with extension talks already underway), Joffrey Ballet's artistic director Gerald Arpino has declared this well-heeled, high-altitude Western Slope community his Saratoga Springs (New York City Ballet's summer home). "It's a wonderful, blessed interplay between this community and the company," he says. "What I love about Telluride is it allows us to be free of all the other distractions that we have when we're in our home city. It allows us to truly concentrate on dance."

During last summer's residency, Arpino made his first major new work in many years, Footnotes for RJ. The company also performed a unique presentation, in conjunction with local Native Americans, of Peter Pucci's Moon of the Falling Leaves.

The residency's success has been surprising to many, given Telluride's location far from the Denver hub and from Colorado's interstate highways. The performances sold out so quickly to an international audience the first year that organizers had to add what they called a "locals' performance." Seating capacity has been increased, and an open rehearsal, a children's component, and lecture-demonstrations have been added. This season (July 20 to August 14), look for all of the above, with more children's programs and possibly another "locals' performance." The program, which should be different each weekend, is likely to include the completed Footnotes; revivals of Trinity, Suite Saint-Saens, Italian Suite, Sea Shadow, and Monotones I and II; new works by Randy Duncan and Laura Dean; and the newly acquired Caught by David Parsons.

VAIL INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL

VAIL--The emphasis is definitely international this season as the festival sheds more of its Bolshoi-only image. The school for students ages 15 to 19 will now be called the World Masters Program and feature teachers from the Paris Opera Ballet and the Bolshoi Academy in Moscow. Younger students will remain in the Vail International Workshop, with teachers from the Royal Academy of Dance and Dance Theatre of Harlem.

For its second year, Vail's New Choreographer's Project adds a second component. Bulgarian choreographer Vladimir Anguelov, recently the choreographer in residence at the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C., and Vail-based composer Don Watson will do two pieces--one set on students in the World Masters program, the other on Rasta Thomas for the Paul Mitchell International Evenings of Dance (August 13 and 14). Thomas returns with partner Adrienne Canterna, couples from the Stuttgart and San Francisco ballets, and Huang Dou Dou, the Shanghai National Ballet superstar, in his first U.S. appearance.

The Ensemble Series (August 5 to 8), begun four years ago, presents the Russian Folk Dance Group and Trinity Irish Dance Company. "We feel that dance encompasses many, many different styles and ... want to present new and different types of dance," says producing director Katherine C. Kersten.

COLORADO DANCE FESTIVAL

BOULDER--After seventeen years, CDF is still a magnet for the out-of-the-ordinary. This summer is the third in the four-year Let's Dance Together: The Americas program (July 4 to August 1). The festival traces the roots of contemporary American dance, while taking an innovative look toward the future. This summer's mixture features Flamenco Latino, a flamenco-salsa fusion group from New York; Group Petit La Croix, an Afro-Haitian company from Oakland, California; Tango Mujer, an all-women tango company based in Buenos Aires, New York, and Berlin; and David Dorfman Dance, which will bring his "No Roles Barred" project that uses local dancers from different social dance communities in a piece that changes their typical roles.