Faces to Watch in ’96 : The Year’s in Their Hands : Well, maybe not just theirs (notice we don’t list Jim Carrey). But these artists and entertainers--some you know, some you don’t--are most likely to make some kind of splash in ’96. Ready? Everybody into the pool. : DANCE : Donald Byrd

Donald Byrd is the daring modernist who put African Americans in blackface for “The Minstrel Show” and had Albrecht raped to death by the Wilis at the end of “Life Situations: Daydreams on ‘Giselle.’ ”

If gender war has preoccupied him as a subject, Byrd’s obsession with George Balanchine’s innovations has added a strong formalist component to his gritty, eclectic dance style.

For 1996, Byrd, 45, is readying a full-evening “Harlem Nutcracker” that supplements Duke Ellington’s classic jazz fantasy on Tchaikovsky’s music with new Ellington-style divertissements--plus a score for Act 1 by Craig Harris that draws upon such idioms as rap, hip-hop and gospel music.

Can the realities of modern African American life co-exist with dreams of waltzing flowers and snowflakes? Be at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion next December to find out.