Lineage Dance, Pasadena’s premier contemporary dance company, is producing the Pasadena Dance Festival 2009 at the Civic Auditorium, Saturday, February 21. City grants, plus Lineage’s commitment to making the arts available to all, yield a big dance fest for the San Gabriel Valley for the second year in a row. And did we mention that all proceeds go to support the Pasadena Educational Foundation?

Last year’s festival brought capacity crowds, so this year will bring more space in the newly renovated Pasadena Convention Center for more than twelve hours of demos and performances, including 40 classes, workshops and showcases. At 8 p.m., ten national dance companies will collaborate in a performance on the main stage.

If you dream of taking small classes with master teachers, this is your turn. And flex. And point and kick. And five, six, seven, eight! You’ll find demos on ballet, modern, contemporary, hip hop, salsa, break dancing, tap, jazz and lyrical, as well as workshops in pilates, yoga, Theraband, floor barre, African dance, swing, capoiera, flamenco, classical Indian, belly dancing and Argentine tango. Plus historical dance via Kathryn Dunham modern, Martha Graham modern and Fosse jazz. And there’s a lecture series, too, on injury, performance, dance therapy and anatomy. 

The cost is $35 (presale) for unlimited classes and the evening performance. If you really bust a move you could cram eight one-hour classes into your day! But then you’d miss the showcases by local troupes from such fine places as L.A. County High School for the Arts, Arcadia High School, Rangashree Dances of India, and Colburn. If you just want to watch, not take classes, it’s $20 for the day and another $20 for the evening performance. Go to lineagedance.org for tickets.