PEOPLE AND COMPANIES IN THE NEWS.

THE VIRGINIA Waterfront Festival is the only East Coast stop this year for Farukh Ruzimatov and the Stars of the Russian Ballet, who pay tribute to Nijinsky May 5 with highlights from The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Carmen, and Le Corsaire. Ten dancers, including the Kirov's Lilia Mussavarova, will be accompanied by the Virginia Symphony at the festival, which runs through May 21 and also features performances by Trinity Irish Dance, Caribbean Dance Company, and the Mark Morris Dance Group, which has agreed to be the festival's artists in residence for five years ... The Dance Heritage Coalition, a national alliance of dance repositories (including the Library of Congress and the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum), has named Elizabeth Aldrich as its artistic director. Aldrich was managing editor of Oxford Press's The International Encyclopedia of Dance. She is a dance historian, the co-founder of the Historical Dance Foundation, and a choreographer who has worked on period films, including Remains of the Day and The Age of Innocence. Aldrich's plans include the announcement of "Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: The First 100," a program to identify and publicize the country's most valuable resources ... Hubbard Street Dance Chicago has named James F. Vincent as the company's new artistic director, effective August 1. Vincent succeeds founder Lou Conte, who will continue as artistic director through July. Vincent, the director of corporate entertainment and special events for Disneyland Paris since 1997, danced with Nederlands Dance Theater from 1978-90 ... Dance St. Louis will present the world premiere of Free To Dance, Part III, by filmmaker Davis Lacy on May 20 in St. Louis. The film, to be aired this fall on PBS, traces the legacy of black traditions in modern dance. Following the film screening, choreographers Donald McKayle and Ron Brown will speak on their collaboration for the film, and Lacy will discuss the film's evolution. The lecture, at the St. Louis Art Museum, is part of a two-week residency by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company ... The National Ballet of Canada has promoted Xiao Nan Yu to First Soloist. The company also announced that Evelyn Hart, a principal dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Damien Welch, a former principal with the Australian Ballet, will join the company as guest artists during the company's spring season, which begins this month ... Miami City Ballet Artistic Director Edward Villella and Miami Beach Mayor Neisen Kasden cut the ceremonial red ribbon on the Ophelia and Juan Js. Roca Center in January, to celebrate the official opening of the Miami troupe's new home. The 63,000-square-foot space features eight rehearsal studios (five in storefront windows visible to the public), a physical therapy room, wardrobe and costume shops, a dancers' lounge, and walkup ticket windows. The center was built with a land grant and $2.5 million from the City of Miami Beach ... The Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine is hosting a community-based dance project commissioned by the Bates Dance Festival May 10-14. Titled "If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride," and created by choreographers Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig, the multimedia work is drawn from community members' stories about change in their lives. It is one of six pilot works being created by dance presenters around the country in association with OnSite Performance Network ... State Ballet of Missouri has reverted to its original name, Kansas City Ballet, according to Randall L. Clark, president of the ballet's board of directors. The company was founded in 1957 by Tatiana Dokoudovska as the Kansas City Ballet Company; it was renamed State Ballet of Missouri in 1986 following the announcement of a long-term joint venture with Dance St. Louis, whereby the company would establish a second home in St. Louis. In 1996, that venture was terminated due to financial trouble in St. Louis. The name change is meant to reflect Dokoudovska's legacy ... Les Grands Ballets Canadiens is now Les Grands Ballets Canadiens du Montreal, to reflect what the company hopes will be an increasingly prominent role in Montreal's cultural scene. The company, led by recently appointed artistic director Gradimir Pankov, made the name change official in March, just prior to its American tour ... Lucinda LaVelli, director of the School of Dance and Theater Arts at the University of Akron, has gone to Yekaterinberg, Russia. Under the auspices of the Citizens for Democracy Corps, La Velli will serve as a volunteer advisor on market strategy development for Ballet Theatre Tschelkunchik (Nutcracker), a youth ballet company that has toured Europe and the United States ... School of American Ballet will hold its 36th annual Workshop Performances June 3 and 5 at the Juilliard Theater in Lincoln Center ... In its 2000 season, titled "Landmarks & Landscapers," the American Dance Festival will present sixteen commissioned works. Companies slated to perform include the Martha Graham Dance Company, Pilobolus Dance Theater, Eiko & Koma, the Limon Dance Company, Twyla Tharp Dance, the Trisha Brown Company, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Mark Morris Dance Group, and others. The festival runs June 8-July 22 on the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.