Four is a significant number for PNC Arts Alive New Dance Horizons II. Dance St. Louis has commissioned four renowned choreographers from around the country to collaborate with four St. Louis professional dance companies to create four distinct, clever and moving world premieres.

PNC Arts Alive New Dance Horizons II will begin at 8 p.m. Oct. 4 and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

In its highly successful inaugural year, St. Louis Post-Dispatch dance critic Calvin Wilson called PNC Arts Alive New Dance Horizons “a showcase for spellbinding work.” For its second year, an entirely new set of choreographers contributes to the production. The performances have been selected by the Post-Dispatch as a “must-see event” in the newspaper’s fall arts guide.

Common Thread Contemporary Dance Company performs new works by Uri Sands, former Alvin Ailey principal dancer and founder of Minneapolis-based TU Dance. The evocative, Washington D.C.-based visionary Nejla Yatkin choreographs a piece for Leverage Dance Theater. The world-renowned Connecticut-based company of dancer-athletes, Pilobolus, collaborates with MADCO. And Emery LeCrone, the young, prolific rising star of the ballet world, works on a beautiful piece with Saint Louis Ballet. After its debut at the Touhill on October 4-5, PNC Arts Alive New Dance Horizons II tours to neighboring presenters in Missouri and Illinois. It’s four companies for the price of one.

Tickets for the performances are $30 and can be purchased at the box office, online at touhill.org or by phone at 314-516-4949.