Monterey Dance Week, the fourth annual festival of new dance hosted by SpectorDance, includes performances and classes by nationally recognized artists and local dancers.

Featured performances Friday and Saturday, May 21 and May 22 at 8pm, include the following pieces:

“Jutze,” a selection from the full-length ballet Bamboo, choreographed by Moving Arts Dance resident choreographer and assistant director, Michael Lowe, with dancers Ethan White and Erin Yarbrough. Lowe is this year’s featured guest artist, and recent recipient of the 2003 Bay Area’s “Izzie” (Isadora Duncan) Dance Award for Choreography. Yarbrough, who currently dances with Smuin Ballet, won the “Izzie” Dance Award for Individual Performance.

Ocean…Rock…Bird…Sky…, inspired by the poetry of Robinson Jeffers and choreographed by Fran Spector Atkins, will be danced by Moving Arts dancers, with media integration by William Roden and narration by Rosemary Luke. “I started working on this piece in ‘96,” Spector Atkins says. “But I feel it’s very timely today. There are two themes in Jeffers’ work that I am focusing on: his passion for the environment and balance in nature. And he speaks about the futility of war, and that is probably why I chose to do this piece now.”

Celestial Garden, choreographed by Lowe, with solos by Lowe and Yarbrough, and including both Moving Arts II and SpectorDance dancers. “Michael’s work has an Asian influence to it,” Spector Atkins says, “and it’s just lovely.’

Border Crossing, a work-in-progress that began as an exploration of the issues of Mexican farmworkers in California today. Choreographed by Spector Atkins and danced by Moving Arts dancers Barbara Giusti, Holly Morrow and Denise Thomas.

From Heaven, a love duet, choreographed by Moving Arts Dance director and founder, Anandha Ray, and danced by Tina Kay Bohnstedt and Viktor Kabaniaev. Bohnstedt is a guest performer with Moving Arts Dance, and has been a member of Diablo Ballet since 1999. Previously, she was a member of the Bavarian National Ballet in Munich, and toured extensively in Asia and Europe. Kabaniaev is Moving Arts Dance Company’s associate director and resident choreographer, who has worked as a principal dancer in several companies in the former Soviet Union, Germany, and the US.

Upstream/Splashing Fish will be the final performance of the evening, with choreography by Lowe, and Moving Arts and guest dancers. A discussion with the artists and audience will follow the final performance.

Additionally, the Emerging Choreographers Showcase will take place Sunday, May 23 at 5pm, featuring works by lesser-known dancers and choreographers from Seattle, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. Each piece is 10 minutes long, and will be followed by a question and answer session.

Spector Dance, 3343 Paul Davis Dr., Marina. $20 Fri-Sat performances; Sunday show $10/advance, $15/at the door. 384-1050.