By Rita Felciano

IF IT WEREN'T for the dancers, the past year would have been a real bummer. Never has creeping indifference, if not outright hostility, to the arts been so insidiously obvious. On the surface everyone agrees a society cannot survive without the creative and challenging ideas that the arts contribute. But try to get a visa for a dancer from Cuba or Pakistan or Namibia to perform at a local concert. The walls of fear are up. According to Americans for the Arts, the arts in California provide 400,000 jobs. Yet the state's arts budget is now an insulting $1 million – less than 3¢ per capita. (The national average is $1.15; New York's is $2.75.)

These are not financially secure times (though you wouldn't know it if you watch the national news). Foundations are strapped, but does that mean they should only fund institutions and not individual artists? The effect of such skewed priorities on Bay Area dancers has been devastating. If the symphony and the opera run a deficit, it might hurt them, but not fatally. For a San Francisco dancer, going thousands of dollars into debt just to put on a program (as one did this summer) cuts to the bone. A local organization that didn't get the final funding for a current project had to ask its artists for credit. That's crazy. And how long is an artistic director of a large, established company who has not drawn a salary for the past year expected to keep it up? Dancers need classes to keep their bodies in shape, yet enrollment in local programs has plunged.

The number of performances, particularly by midcareer artists, is also down. Unless dance companies come with their own funding, local presenters often cannot help out. Dance Mission Theatre's fall schedule has been exceedingly thin. Artistic director Krissy Keefer notes that some midsize companies that regularly book her theater had to forgo their annual seasons this year. "I think the only people who are doing well are those connected to circus traditions: Bandaloop, Capacitor, Circo Zero," Keefer says. She views some of their success as the result of a trickle-down effect of the ongoing popularity of Cirque du Soleil and Las Vegas shows.

Down the street at ODC Theater, the lineup is changing. While affirming ODC's commitment to dance, artistic director Rob Bailis is planning to bring in more mixed-media and music events – which are cheaper to produce – to make up for the shortfall in dance concerts. Bailis is trying to help: earlier this month he sent out a call for submissions to a program he calls "The Underserved" (scheduled for Feb. 27-28, 2004). Choreographers are invited to create works on such topics as "time remaining," "insufficient funds," "mayor for a day," and "axis of evil."

And yet, despite all these frustrations, innovation didn't dry up. Almost always it was the result of a single individual's desire to step out of the groove and into the unknown. We expect those risk-takers to be artists, but many of the past year's good ideas came from surprising sources. Below is a list of what might be called the "Chance of the Month" concerts – performances that intrigued because of what they tried to do.

Jan. 31, Liss Fain Dance For "Frames of Light," Liss Fain invited first-rate lighting designer Matthew Antaky to structure an evening of works by her own Liss Fain Dance, Fellow Travelers Performance Group, and Flyaway Productions. Instead of playing a supporting role, the lighting designer was in charge. It didn't completely work, but enough seeds were sown to show that the premise has promise.

Feb. 6, Potrzebie Dance Project Working with theater director Mark Jackson, Chris Black gave herself an extraordinary 10th company anniversary present, the 40-minute bravura solo The Ecstasy of Saint Whatshername. In one of the most idiosyncratic pieces seen all year, Black examined the making of female martyrs in a work that was tight, funny, philosophical, and altogether original.

March 28, East Bay Dance Festival This fest was the brainchild of novice presenter Katherine Davis, who – undeterred by the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts' postage-stamp-size stage, lack of wings, and unimpressive sight lines – presented a smartly varied showcase of new East Bay choreography. Not all the works were excellent, but the event's spirit of collegial conviviality made its point: vital local dance can happen outside San Francisco.

April 24, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company Choreographer Margaret Jenkins came up with an imaginative and impressive way to celebrate her company's 30th anniversary. Taking over Fort Mason Center's Herbst Pavilion, "Three Decades of Dance" was a huge, beautifully designed installation of costumes, designs, and photographs that included live performances of past works and a world premiere.

May 1, San Francisco Ballet With Alexei Ratmansky, Helgi Tomasson took a chance. He had never seen any of the young Russian dancer's choreography, but he had a hunch Ratmansky might be talented. So, in addition to commissioning Julia Adam (Imaginal Disk) and Stanton Welch (Tu Tu), both of whom the SFB had worked with before, Tomasson followed his intuition. Ratmansky's Le carnaval des animaux proved to be a hit and that rarest of beasts – a comedy ballet.

June 7, Yaelisa and Caminos Flamencos Instead of plugging into the Ethnic Dance Festival's prevalent celebration of community, Yaelisa challenged her audience to journey into the shadows. What may have been the most haunting performance of her career, the explosive yet introspective solo Soleares spoke of loneliness, female power, and defiance.

July 11, Summerfest Executive director Joan Lazarus's new project, the Choreographers and Composers Consortium, revitalized the 12-year-old festival. Collaborating composers and choreographers learned from each other and had to develop some out-of-the-box skills. The overall results were impressive. And how often do dancers get to perform to live music?

Aug. 29, ODC House Special 2 ODC Theater artistic director Bailis, in his first curated show, displayed a deft hand when he put Yannis Adoniou, Erika Shuch, and Benjamin Levy into the same showcase. Each artist has a strong, distinct voice; as a choreographer, Levy, a member of the Joe Goode company, was unknown. But no longer.

Sept. 17, San Francisco International Arts Festival Ignoring naysayers and skeptics, producer Andrew Wood stubbornly plowed ahead to realize his dream of the San Francisco International Arts Festival. The performances by the three companies he brought to the Bay Area – Quasar Dance, Akram Khan Company, and Compagnie Salia nï Seydou – were spectacular successes. And Wood even ended up in the black.

Oct. 24, Nikolais Dance Theatre Alwin Nikolais (1910-93) was a pioneering visual artist, composer, and choreographer whose fanciful and inventive creativity is often talked about and rarely seen. So his life- and artistic partner, Murray Louis, scratched the money together for a touring show by the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company's Nikolais Dance Theatre that introduced another generation to some of this fascinating artist's work at Stanford Lively Arts.

Nov. 14, Suzanne Farrell Ballet Ever since Suzanne Farrell, George Balanchine's last and greatest muse, retired in 1989, ballet lovers have wondered why nobody has offered this woman a ballet company to run. Now, finally, she has one. She had to start it herself. On their first nationwide tour, these dancers were a revelation. Balanchine hasn't been danced that musically since the ballet master, as he modestly called himself, ran New York City Ballet, a company he also had to start from scratch.