Citywide Dance Program Is on the Move Again : Theater: A total of 300 professionals and students will combine their talents for this year’s offering: ‘The Dancing Man of Echoville.’

The San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts announced Tuesday the 1992 program for City Moves!--”The Dancing Man of Echoville.”

The dance-theater production will be performed by 300 adult and student dancers May 21-24 at the San Diego Convention Center.

City Moves!, San Diego’s largest dance-theater outreach program, was established by the foundation in 1990 to encourage dancers of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, and abilities to mount an annual community production.

“The Dancing Man of Echoville” is the creation of City Moves! artistic director William Conrow, who wrote and directed “The Terrible Tale of Ringmaster Twigg,” last year’s City Moves! offering, which received a mixed critical response.

This year’s project is budgeted at more than $161,000--down from $250,000 last year--and Conrow said he has “tailored the new story to better utilize the artistic people involved and challenge them to collaborate in new ways. . . . Over half of the artists are back this year.”

In “The Dancing Man,” the townspeople of Echoville “are plummeted into creative chaos” as they respond to a stranger’s comment that the sky is falling. Conrow’s inspiration for the story was the “whimsicalness” of Dr. Seuss, whose stories “look at the world in a different way,” he said. “I’d always wanted to do something like that, and I’m even more sentimental about it since Ted Geisel recently died.”

In 18 dances, the whole town will try to find what’s wrong and then try to heal the sky, Conrow explained. “We run it all through a filter of children. It’s a fun collaboration.”

Conrow’s artistic collaborators include 25 choreographers (Terry Berliner, Melissa Cottle, Isaacs, McCaleb and Dancers, Margaret Marshall, George Willis, Terry Wilson, and Carl Yamamoto, among others), composers Christopher Penney and Cara Freedman, scenic designer Mike Buckley, and costume and set designer Mary Larson.

In addition to the 300 professional and student dancers (140 of which have returned from 1991), more than 2,000 San Diego Unified School District students will work with visual artists Alber de Matteis, Mario Lara, Margret Larlham, and Philip Matzigkeit to create sets, props, and costumes for “The Dancing Man.”

City Moves! has two new features this year to enhance its educational focus. The Children’s Dance Theater offers extra dance training to the most talented of the returning dancers, and an Artist in Residency Creative Dance Program places professional dancers in the schools for two-week residencies.

Auditions for the project begin Saturday. Dancers of any ability are encouraged to audition. Those trying out must be 8 years or older and living in the greater San Diego metropolitan area. Dancers must preregister in person at one of the following audition locations prior to the audition date. Call the recreation center for information.

Saturday: Ocean Beach Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Ave., 531-1527.

Oct. 12: Linda Vista Recreation Center, 7064 Levant St., 573-1392.

Oct. 19: Standley Recreation Center, 3585 Governor Drive, 552-1652, or Covina Del Sol Recreation Center, 5319 Orange Ave., 583-0303.

Oct. 26: Tierrasanta Recreation Center, 11220 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., 573-1393, or Skyline Recreation Center, 8285 Skyline Drive, 527-3486.

Oct. 27: Balboa Park, Casa Del Prado, Room 201 (phone registration only), 234-5853.