In our region, spring and summer is historically the peak blooming season for professional dance performances: This year, indeed, there’ll be no shortage of options in terms of the number of events and the variety of the blossoms. Oh, but how to choose? This small sample, in chronological order, is NOT a “Top 10” list — art is subjective! — but rather a hint of the variety of aromas that’ll be wafting through our venues, with an emphasis on (mostly) local debuts. There are lots of returning favorites, no worries there. My goal here is to point you down various pathways, but you have to agree to dig deeper: a garden of delights awaits!

1. “Illinois”/ Justin Peck and Sufjan Stevens at Bard SummerScape

Multimedia is hard to compartmentalize; that’s why this show is included in both theater and dance previews. Peck and Stevens were rising stars in their respective art forms (Peck is a former dancer with New York City Ballet, where he is now a resident choreographer. Stevens is a multitalented musician whose compositions float in indie/alternative pop/rock/folk genres.) Their first stellar collaboration, Peck’s ballet “Year of the Rabbit” premiered in 2012. Always playful and clever, there’s often a deeply human aspect to their works, and tiny, surprising moments of subtle, sometimes melancholic, truth and beauty. This new project — with a story by Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury, and choreographed to new arrangements of Stevens’ 2005 album “Illinois,” which will be played live — has all the makings of an epic experience. June 23-July 2

2. Mikhail Baryshnikov at 75: A Day of Music and Celebration at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park

Although a Russian import, Baryshnikov has long been a beloved artistic citizen of the world, and very specifically, a denizen of New York City, where his Baryshnikov Arts Center is located. BAC and Kaatsbaan Cultural Park join forces to celebrate this iconic, diverse dancer/actor/artist/genius in an afternoon of musical performances by luminaries including Laurie Anderson and Mark Morris. Never mind that it’s not actually a dance-filled event: a bona fide dance phenomenon is being feted, and that’s enough for me. June 25

Photo: Hans Gerritsen

3. Dutch National Ballet at Jacob’s Pillow

Somehow, the mighty Dutch National Ballet has never performed at the Pillow, but hold on to your socks, the company is making its debut this summer. The Netherlanders perform a wide-ranging repertoire, from the classics to the very contemporary. The Pillow program offers generous doses of the scope of the dancers’ finely honed ballet technique in Victor Gsovsky’s formal, devilish-but-charming “Grand Pas Classique,” Hans Van Manen’s playfully smoldering “Five Tangos,” William Forsythe’s cheeky “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude,” and Wubkje Kuindersma’s sweetly melancholic “Two & Only.” July 5-9

Photo: David DeSilva

4. AXIS Dance Company at Jacob’s Pillow

Another established company making its Pillow debut this summer, the disabled, non-disabled, and neurodiverse contemporary dancers of the San Francisco-based AXIS both subtly underscore and exuberantly highlight the universal humanity that is inherent in dance. Performing on the Pillow’s outdoor stage against the breathtaking backdrop of the Berkshire Hills, the company will present a triple bill which includes Asun Noales’ sensually tactile “Desiderata” and Robin Dekkers’ fluid, swirling “Flutter.” July 14-16

5. “She’s Auspicious.” Mythili Prakash at Jacob’s Pillow

One of my favorite pieces of the “America(na) To Me” program (the mosaic of dance that opened last year’s Pillow Festival) was the Bharatanatyam dancer/choreographer Prakash’s “Ar | Dha.” The movement was sumptuous yet subtle, the work an at once a playful and provocative feminist spin on an old tale. In her new work, Prakash continues to push and open the envelope of tradition wider, as the piece, according to the Pillow, “references mythological and cultural practices surrounding the Goddess as well as societal expectations of femininity.” July 21

6. "Runners.” Cirk La Putyka at PS 21

Artists are always finding new ways to tell familiar narratives. In “Runners,” four circus artists and two musicians of the Czech Republic circus/theater group Cirk La Putyka take a common theme of our time — our lack of time and our rushing about to try to keep up — and turn and tilt and catapult it. If the moral of this particular story is to work toward a more humane pace, the performers’ astonishing skills, and the set’s spectacular, giant treadmill may, at least in the moment, make viewers’ hearts race. July 22

7. “Save the Last Dance for Me.” Allesandro Sciarroni at PS 21

The performance artist/director Allesandro Sciarroni may well have saved the Italian social dance called polka chinata (crouched polka) from extinction; when he first stumbled upon this curious, athletic “courtship” dance from the early twentieth century, there were only five living practitioners in Italy. In some ways, the form was inherently nontraditional: a social-cum-ballroom dance in which the pair was always two men, a striking mix at once formal and wild, the duet embracing one another in familiar ballroom-like positioning but with a kind of grappling, almost combative energy. Courtship or survival of the fittest? July 29

8. “Hip Hop Across the Pillow.” Various artists at Jacob’s Pillow

How fitting that the site of the US’s oldest theater built specifically for dance should host a big 50th birthday party for hip hop, the Bronx-born cultural movement that has grown into one of the most inspiring and influential multi-faceted art forms of our time. The Pillow celebration will span across the campus, including performances in the iconic Ted Shawn theater and at various spots outdoors. The variety of events will feature some of the celebrated movers and shakers of the expansive genre. August 2-6

9. Decidedly Jazz Danceworks at Jacob’s Pillow

Our neighbors to the north (specifically, Calgary) who comprise this 38-year-old company — also making its Pillow debut this summer — are clear where jazz comes from, “recognizing themselves,” as the Pillow website notes, “as guests in a form born out of Black American culture and the African American experience.” This acknowledgement is further celebrated by explorations of where it might go next. The chamber-sized company will be joined by a live band and vocalist. August 9-13

Photo: Chris Jones

10. Martha Graham Dance Company at Jacob’s Pillow

No, the grande dame of early US modern dance companies isn’t making its “local debut;” the Graham company has become a fairly regular Pillow presence in recent years. The program is comprised of one of the troupe’s mainstays, Graham’s stylized, dramatic 1946 “Cave of the Heart” (with sets by the iconic artist Isamu Noguchi), and the 2022 “CAVE,” choreographed for the company by contemporary choreographer Hofesh Shechter. August 6-20

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