In its first-ever concert held during the academic year, the internationally acclaimed Bates Dance Festival collaborated with the Bates College Concerts Committee to present Beautiful Me by the renowned South African company Vuyani Dance Theatre on Oct. 16 in Bates College’s Schaeffer Theatre. The performance kicked off the troupe’s North American tour.

A global fusion of rousing live music sets the pace for this solo tour de force by the exquisite dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma, a rising star on South Africa’s dance and theater scene. Beautiful Me speaks honestly about the profound task of finding one’s authentic voice and redefining our notion of postmodern African choreography.

During his week in residence at Bates, Maqoma and his company members — Isaac Katlego Molelekoa; violin; Mandla Madienkosi Nhlapo, percussion; Bongani Kunene, cello; and Poorvi Bhana, sitar — offered a noonday concert, gave master dance workshops, spoke to music and anthropology classses and with members of Amandla!, and met with faculty members whose teaching focuses on Africa.

For a glimpse of his experience at Bates, watch the following short video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In its Maine debut, the Battleworks Dance Company appears at the Bates Dance Festival in the world premiere of a collaboration created with composer-percussionist Carl Landa. Performances take place at 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, July 16 and 18, in Bates College’s Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Tickets are $20 for the general public and $12 for students and seniors and can be purchased by calling 207-786-6161 after July 6.

Another festival event takes place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 21. The panel discussion “Global Exchange: Sharing Across Cultures,” featuring international choreographers exploring their work and the cultural environments in which they create it, is open to the public at no cost in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Led by Parsons Dance Company veteran Robert Battle, Battleworks is considered one of America’s most promising and aesthetically daring ensembles. At Bates, the company’s new work is an alloy of modern dance and African traditions. Also on the program are timeless and edgy dances from the Battleworks repertory.

The new piece builds upon Battle’s 2004 piece “Juba,” an athletic work, commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, that explores the ecstasy of dance. It springs from the community-oriented, improvisational nature of the African drumming circle, celebrating the power of that tradition to bring people of all cultures together.

Battle was a member of the Parsons company from 1994 to 2001 and began setting his own work on the company in 1998. Parsons performed his choreography across the United States and internationally, and featured it in several New York seasons.

As an independent choreographer, Battle has been commissioned by Hubbard Street Dance, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, River North Dance Company, Koresh Dance Company, the Introdans Ensemble and PARADIGM.

In 2001 Battle founded Battleworks Dance Company, and the company premiered in August 2002 at the World Dance Alliance’s Global Assembly in Düsseldorf, Germany. The company was selected as the American representative to the festival thanks to its unique outlook on the future of dance.

Boldly pushing the boundaries that have traditionally defined modern dance, Battle takes his troupe of dancers into uncharted aesthetic realms. Battleworks has performed extensively in New York and across the country at such venues as The Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, American Dance Festival and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.

In the words of a New York Sun reviewer, “Battle makes an audience sit up and take notice, marvel, even laugh. His work reaches over the edge of the stage and communicates with people.”

In addition to mainstage performances, the Bates Dance Festival offers a selection of free and low-cost events. Additional information, including ticket prices and event locations, is available on the festival Web site: http://www.batesdancefestival.org/

Opening the 2009 performance season of the internationally acclaimed Bates Dance Festival, the nuanced, sensual Kate Weare Company offers two Maine premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 11, in Bates College’s Schaeffer Theatre, 365 College St.

Tickets are $20 for the general public and $12 for students and seniors and can be purchased by calling 207-786-6161 after July 6.

The company offers a free lecture-demonstration at 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 6, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

One of the most important choreographers to emerge in recent years, Kate Weare creates fierce, imaginative dances that explore perceptions of identity, intimacy and the basic human urge to move.

Fresh from its New York season, at Bates the Kate Weare Company presents its acclaimed “Bridge of Sighs,” a quartet that looks at the reckless and wise instinct that drive us upstream towards love. Also premiering is “Lean-to,” a nuanced dialogue between movement and sound created in collaboration with composer Michael Gallante, scenic designer Kurt Perschke and lighting designer Brian Jones, and featuring a trio of exceptional dancers.

Kate Weare was nominated for the 2008 Alpert Award in the Arts for choreography. Her honors include a choreographic fellowship from the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography and residencies at Joyce SoHo, in Dance New Amsterdam’s Artist in Residence program and at Jacob’s Pillow, which co-commissioned “Bridge of Sighs.”

Weare earned her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the California Institute of the Arts in 1994. She showed work in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Belgrade before moving to New York in 2000. She founded the company in 2005 with the mission of making dances that explore a contemporary view of intimacy through the power and clarity of the moving body.

The company has received commissions from Dance Theater Workshop, the Sonoma Arts Council, WestWave Dance Festival, AXIS Dance Company, CityDance Ensemble, and Danspace Project. In 2007, the company won the top prize of $10,000 from the Joyce Theater Foundation’s A.W.A.R.D. Show, in which the audience votes on the best modern dance from among 16 competing companies.

In addition to mainstage performances, the Bates Dance Festival offers a selection of free and low-cost events. Additional information, including ticket prices and event locations, is available on the festival Web site.