KENNEDY CENTER FOCUSES ON CHOREOGRAPHERS.

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The Kennedy Center will celebrate the millennium with a performing arts season that showcases the most influential dance choreographers of the twentieth century. In an ironic twist, the century's four greatest ballet choreographers will be honored, as will one of the boldest of ballet's defectors--Martha Graham.

"Kennedy Center 2000" will begin in September 1999 and run through 2000. The ballet repertory will include dances by Jerome Robbins, to be performed by the San Francisco Ballet; those of Antony Tudor, to be presented by American Ballet Theatre; George Balanchine's work, performed by a variety of companies, including Dance Theatre of Harlem; and the choreography of Frederick Ashton, which will be danced by a company still undetermined at press time.

Modern dance choreographers commissioned by the Kennedy Center for the millennium season include Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, and Trisha Brown. According to Charles Reinhart, co-artistic director of dance for the Kennedy Center, each of these artists represents a limb of Graham's "modern dance tree." Indeed, Taylor and Cunningham both danced in Graham's company, and Brown, having studied directly with Cunningham, was heavily influenced by Graham's revolutionary technique. Together the three helped to shape what we now know as American modern dance.

The millennium program will also include a three-part television series, "Free to Dance," highlighting African-American contributions to modern dance. Featured artists will range from Katherine Dunham and Alvin Alley to Bill T. Jones and Urban Bush Women.

The upcoming season reaffirms the Kennedy Center's position as one of the country's largest dance presenters. As Lawrence Wilker, president of the Center says, "As our nation's center for the performing arts, if we don't take dance seriously and present the best of what our nation has to offer, who will?"