FALL PREVIEW : Our Picks for the Best of the Coming Fall Season : <i> Calendar critics make their picks for the fall season’s best bets in pop music, jazz, stage, music and dance and the visual arts. : </i> : DANCE

The fall dance season kicks off Sept. 14 when the Bella Lewitzky company revives three celebrated pieces from the early 1970s at the Japan America Theatre. It ends with the return of the Joffrey Ballet “Nutcracker” to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Dec. 18-29. In between comes an unusually varied slate of dance events.

On Sept. 19, Highways launches “Dance Traffic,” its second annual dance festival--an ambitious event (running through Nov. 23) showcasing ten soloists and groups. The same night, the Jazz Tap Ensemble opens a four-performance run at the L.A. Theatre Center.

On Sept. 21, a huge, varied Korean gala stops for one night at the Shrine Auditorium en route to the United Nations. On Sept. 26, Ballet Folklorico de Mexico returns to the Shrine with a four-day engagement of the company’s most popular suites.

In another welcome return, National Ballet of Canada appears at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Oct. 8-13.

Meanwhile, on Oct. 11 and 12, the Dance Gallery presents Wim Vandekeybus’ high-energy Ultima Vez company from Belgium in the North American premiere of “Always the Same Lies” at Occidental College’s Keck Theatre.

The PBS “Alive From Off Center” series recently showcased Vandekeybus’ choreography, as well as offering a preview of the full-evening work by Urban Bush Women scheduled to be seen at the Wadsworth Theater on Oct. 25: “Praise House,” a look at three generations of African-American spirituality, choreographed by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar.

On Nov. 8 and 9, the Japan America Theatre offers the North American debut of Haku Tobo, a Butoh group from Japan. Les Ballet Africains from Guinea arrive the next week at several Southland venues, including Pasadena Civic Auditorium (Nov. 10) and Bridges Auditorium, Claremont (Nov. 12).

From Nov. 29 through Dec. 8, the Orange County Performing Arts Center hosts the premiere engagement of a new American Ballet Theatre “Nutcracker,” choreographed by Brian MacDonald.

As usual, “Nutcracker” productions dominate the December dance calendar, but on Dec. 14 and 15, the Japan America Theatre provides an alternative: Japanese National Living Treasure Fujima Fujiko in “The Art of Dance,” a program of Kabuki choreography.