Since its inception, the group has embraced the city's avant-garde quirks, inviting dancers and choreographers to participate.

If we invited choreographers from the outside, they found it difficult to adapt to the way we work, two hours of rehearsal here, one hour there.

Each year, the festival invites choreographers from abroad to share ideas in the International Choreographers Workshop, directed by Sharon Kinney.

It is not a new idea to invite modern-dance choreographers into ballet companies.

Dr. Wechter often invited choreographers to present dances before the exhibited sculptures.

He estimated that 70,000 people saw the company last year, but he said he constantly worried about having enough money to produce quality work and invite talented choreographers.

He does not rule out inviting modern-dance choreographers like Twyla Tharp as guests, as long as they use what he calls "our vocabulary."

True, the Kirov has begun to invite French choreographers and has staged Bournonville's ballets.

He has invited other choreographers with distinctive styles to join him in this series of performances.

But on the other side of the fence, modern dance has been loath to invite choreographers from the commercial theater into its own precincts.