Talk about dance. (News).

Music lovers have it over ballet aficionados in at least one respect. They can revisit great artists, even those who are no longer performing. While a recording may never compete with hearing Kirsten Flagstad or Yehudi Menuhin live, what dancegoer wouldn't love to catch even a glimpse of Edward Villella in Prodigal Son or Nora Kaye in Pillar of Fire? Film and video technologies have vastly expanded our ability to hang on, however imperfectly, to dance performances. Yet most of these historic records remain locked up in company archives and research libraries. Most dance lovers are left to rely on their memories, written descriptions, yellowing programs, and the odd photo or two. It's not a very satisfactory state of affairs.

That's why in 1994 San Francisco-based Deborah DuBowy, who studied at San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and the Joffrey School, started "Words on Dance," a series of public conversations that attract as many as 600 people per event. The format is straightforward: One dancer interviews another. Interspersed are video and film clips from the guest's career. Since all the conversations have been carefully documented, "Words on Dance" has established an oral history which it hopes to eventually make available to dance collections, schools, and the public. The program is unique, but probably could be replicated with relative ease in other communities.

Sometimes interviewer and guests are of the same generation, giving the conversations a tone of collegiality: Merrill Ashley with Peter Martins; Damara Bennett with Edward Villella; Kristine Elliot with Martine van Hamel. Sometimes the interviewers used to dance for the guest: Evelyn Cisneros with Michael Smuin; Wayne Hazzard with Joe Goode. And sometimes generational differences create intriguing perspectives: Julia Adam and Christopher Stowell interviewed Mark Morris; Mikko Nissenen chatted with Violette Verdy. Two years ago, Verdy returned the favor by interviewing Helgi Tomasson, whose career at New York City Ballet overlapped with hers for a few years. One of them was a family affair: Christopher Stowell with his parents, Francia Russell and Kent Stowell (held in Seattle).

The series attracts those who have seen the guests perform and many for whom he or she is a legendary name. In the most recent talk, "Words on Dance" received special funding to invite San Francisco Ballet students when--in a departure from the usual format--critic Octavio Roca interviewed Lorena Feijoo about the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. It proved to be a lively and intriguing give-and-take about style and politics in Cuba.

The upcoming conversation, the last for this season, pairs SFB's Joanna Berman and Cynthia Gregory on March 18 (at the Herbst Theatre). It will show Gregory in her most famous role as the Black Swan, but also as Odette, as Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, in Alvin Ailey's The River, and in Kenneth MacMillan's Concerto. Berman, who retires at the end of the current SFB season, may have some questions not only about dance but about life after dance. For tickets, call City Box Office at 415/392-4400.