Dancers are going to jail.

In an age when much choreography aims to be pretty and pleasing, or painful but politically correct, dancers Pat Graney, Ehud Krauss, and Heidi Duckier are working on the gritty edge--making dance in jails and prisons.

Of the nearly one million inmates in U.S. federal and state prisons, 50,000 are women; most are far from their families and communities. Many inmates maintain a tough and aggressive front just to get by. Seattle choreographer Pat Graney goes into their metal compounds for Keeping the Faith--the Prison Project Performance that brings modern dance to women, aged 15 to 48, to shape their experiences into performance as an avenue of creative expression and self-empowerment. Similarly, Ehud Krauss has gone to juvenile hall in Santa Clara, California, twice a week for the past four years just to get several dozen boys and girls to dance and discover alt the good that can come from it. They're all under age eighteen; dancing gives them hope and the knowledge that they are in control of their own bodies. Not so different from any other dancer.

Named one of L.A.'s "top ten coolest things to do," Heidi Duckler's Collage Dance Theatre brings audiences to the abandoned historic Lincoln Heights Jail in East Los Angeles so the public can know what it's like to live the inmate experience. It's okay to visit for a performance, but nobody wants to live there! This company of dancers, actors, musicians, and guards stage provocative site specific works about personal freedom and space such as Mast Wanted.

THE BALLET LOOK

Thinking about getting your hair cut really short? Fuhgeddaboudit! New York City runways show fall fashions going back to the dancerly look with shoulder length hair, often pulled back in a bun or clip, and a long, lean look of stretch jersey and wrapped skirts.

To underscore the look, Bergdorf Goodman, the prestigious Fifth Avenue department store, opened its annual tribute to American Ballet Theatre with Danskin dancewear beside the season's "ballet pink" evening gowns from couture designers such as Oscar de La Renta and Mary McFadden. "The influence of ballet can easily be seen in the most fashionable trends of the season," announced the publicity releases, "with ... delicate wrap tops, wrap skirts, pretty leotards, and cami tops in flattering performance fabrics." So look to your dance bags for this season's high fashion.

Sorry, guys. No word on men wearing unitards for evening wear--unless there's a big S embroidered on the chest.