Baryshnikov Goes Modern With Morris : Dance: He is teaming with the often outrageous choreographer for a performance of new works tonight in Boston. The White Oak Dance Project then embarks on a 17-city tour.

If Mikhail Baryshnikov had been looking to return to dancing in a setting far removed from the one he knew at American Ballet Theatre, he could not have chosen better than the White Oak Dance Project, the group he set up in collaboration with Mark Morris, the versatile and often outrageous choreographer from Seattle. Their nine-member company bows tonight in a sold-out concert in Boston before embarking on a 17-city tour.

For Baryshnikov, who at 42 is entering the twilight of his career, the White Oak tour gives him the opportunity to continue dancing. It also continues his relationship with Morris, which was solidified a year ago in Brussels at Morris’ Monnaie Dance Group and continued with a Baryshnikov-Monnaie performance earlier this month in New York.

“I wanted to work with Mark. It’s a very rewarding process. He puts you into the dance, which is in his imagination. He works very fast; you really have to be on top of the situation. It’s a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun at the same time,” Baryshnikov said by telephone from his country home outside New York City. “The dancers in the group are very special--they all bring their own flavor to the rehearsal. There are a lot of very funny moments--and then sometimes Mark cracks the whip in front of your nose.”

Working on “Ten Suggestions,” Baryshnikov said, has made him focus on musical details (the score is by the Russian composer Tcherepnin). “It’s a challenge; it’s difficult,” he said a few days before first performing it. “Mark gives you a lot of space, but he anchors it for you, and it’s up to you how to deal with it.”

Many dance observers may be surprised that Baryshnikov, known for classical purity, has cast his lot with the modern-dance faction, but his interest in--and intense loyalty to--Morris stems from his ongoing search for new creative opportunities, with the sense that those now lie outside the world of classical ballet. He flatly denied a recent report that he was planning to perform with the Paris Opera Ballet in “Giselle.”

“I’m much more excited to see modern dance; there are more surprises--and better dancing, too,” he said. He expressed his disappointment with the contemporary ballet works he sees: “A lot of people try to work with classical ballet, but there are not many choreographers of the caliber of Tudor or Balanchine or Ashton. It’s a slow period, a dull period. Why? Who knows? In modern dance, they are definitely ahead of the traditional classical dance. That’s just my opinion, but it’s why I’m shifting my focus.

“All that speculation about what’s right and wrong in classical ballet got out of hand. Fighting about the presentation of classics, comparing the companies.” A laugh slipped out as he said this. “It doesn’t do any good. It just confuses a lot of dancers.”

The White Oak tour itinerary keeps it away from major cities and, theoretically, from the prying eyes of the more influential dance critics.

Actually, a considerable number of those prying eyes are likely to find their way to the Wang Center for Performing Arts in Boston tonight because the artistic matchup of Baryshnikov and Morris is too tantalizing for many to pass up. It took only four days for the 2,500-seat hall to sell out its opening-night gala at $25-$150 per seat to benefit Boston’s Dance Umbrella, a producing organization.

Baryshnikov retains the aura of the world’s leading classical dancer, but he has forsaken the ballet stage and lately made only fleeting appearances in the United States, a year ago with Martha Graham and earlier this month in Brooklyn.

Morris, 34, a dancer in his own right, has been based in Brussels since 1988 and is on the verge of a return to this country once his three-year arrangement in Belgium ends in June.

The seeds of White Oak were sown nearly a year ago when Baryshnikov, fresh from his rupture with ABT, went to Brussels to guest with Morris’ company. He created a role in “Wonderland,” a moody film noir -inspired dance set to Schoenberg, which he performed on the recent Brooklyn program. He was eager to continue working with Morris (from whom he had commissioned and danced in “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes” at ABT in 1988), and the two came up with a plan that called for a July-August rehearsal. And this initial tour.

Baryshnikov said he deferred to Morris on the selection of most of the dancers, although he did invite two whom he knew well from ABT to join--soloist Kathleen Moore and Jamie Bishton, who came to the company by way of Twyla Tharp Dance. Morris proposed the others, an impressive group with a diverse background of ballet and modern dance among them.

“He wanted to work with people he knew really well so there wouldn’t be any surprises,” Baryshnikov said.

They are:

* Rob Besserer, formerly prominent with the Lar Lubovitch Company and more recently a regular performer with Morris as well as Martha Clarke;

* Kate Johnson, who performed memorably with the Paul Taylor Dance Company during the 1980s;

* Nancy Colahan and Peggy Baker, longtime members of Lubovitch’s company;

* Denise Pons, a principal with the Boston Ballet;

* William Pizzuto, who recently left that company;

* David Parsons, the much-acclaimed former Paul Taylor dancer now heading his own troupe, who will join the tour during its final two weeks.

Reportedly, Morris himself will not dance during the tour, which will also include eight or nine musicians.

It’s a group of proven professionals, all highly regarded in the field--veterans, in dance terms. Baryshnikov stresses that he is strictly “one of the dancers” in this new setting.

“Mark likes to work with dancers in their late 20s and 30s--and now even 40s,” he said joking. “He wants people who see life with an adult vision, who have not only physical stamina. He likes people who really see life without doubt--and I understand him.”

To finance this venture, Baryshnikov turned to Howard Gilman, a longtime dance patron and friend. He is the benefactor who bailed out the touring Donetsk Ballet early last year when the Soviet troupe was suddenly left stranded. Gilman opened up his 7,500-acre White Oak Plantation to the dancers, building a $1-million dance studio on the grounds.

It was there, among exotic birds and other endangered wildlife in the thick midsummer heat, that Morris and the dancers rehearsed. “It was the most extraordinary setup,” Baryshnikov said. “We were isolated from the world by the beauty around us. It gives you a certain tranquility and peace. At the same time, it somehow produces a lot of energy for work, and we did work very hard, five to six hours a day.”

Morris created a new ensemble work, “Motorcade,” set to a Saint-Saens Septet, and “Pas de Poisson,” a French trio set to a Satie score. (The latter is double-cast for Morris’ own company, and was performed by the choreographer, Baryshnikov and Penny Hutchinson to open the mixed bill in Brooklyn.) He also set “Going Away Party,” a recent Brussels creation set to Bob Willis’ country tunes, and taught Baryshnikov one of his own solos, “Ten Suggestions.”

Baryshnikov is firm about calling White Oak a project rather than a company. “I’m not intending to create a company and have those responsibilities,” he said. “But we do have long-term plans for next year. I hope we’ll do a little wider tour in the States during the spring--bigger cities, some nice houses up the West Coast. In the summer we would probably go to festivals in Europe--and maybe the Far East, Australia. There are a lot of possibilities.

“I hope Mark would do something else new for us. Some people might come and go, some would stay--it would depend very much on how we all like working with each other during this tour. This is a first try. Right now we’re all very close and really having a good time.”

Peter Catalano in Boston contributed to this article.

NEXT STEP

The White Oak Dance Project will tour the Midwest and the South through Nov. 19. In December, Baryshnikov will go to New York for the shooting of Peter Sellars’ film “The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez.” After that, he’s scheduled to return to Brussels for Morris’ all-adult, scary deconstruction of “The Nutcracker.” It is rumored that Baryshnikov will dance the role of Fritz (in most versions, the naughty boy at the Christmas party).