Kalamazoo is known for a few things, including having an outdoor pedestrian mall and being home to a bevy of pharmaceutical and research companies.

A new item might soon be added to that list: a strong community of modern dance.

Wellspring, a dance company founded by dancer and choreographer Cori Terry in 1981, is hosting the first annual Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival and is optimistic about its reception.

"This festival is really going to put Kalamazoo on the map as a hot spot for modern dance," says Artistic Associate Michael Miller.

For the past 25 years, Wellspring has offered a Dance Forum every February to "open up space for younger budding choreographers to show their work," Miller explains. "It slowly grew into a full-fledged concert, and then for the last seven years we've been bringing in one guest choreographer...we just got so big, we decided to change it."

And changed it certainly has. The Midwest RAD Festival will include the work of 19 choreographers. Nine are from Michigan, including Shawn T. Bible from Grand Rapids, Corinne Imberski from Ann Arbor, Erin Mitchelll from Kalamazoo, and the Rustic Grove Dance Company from Jackson. The other 10 participants come from everywhere in between, from San Francisco to Minneapolis to New York City.

"We were looking for two things; one, smart, clever, mature choreography [that was] aesthetically pleasing and well-rounded. Also, [we were] looking for pieces that would make a good Festival," said the official RAD Fest coordinator. "We had to look for a diverse group of pieces: solos, duets, trios, larger group pieces and maybe overall what is a good representation of what is going on in modern dance in 2010."

The two-day Festival will have two concerts per night; each of the four performances is by a different set of choreographers. To find interested choreographers, Wellspring put the word out and began to accept entries.

"We had a really great response," Mitchell said. "I'm a really kinetic person and I looked for smart dancing first then the choreography. You can tell a more mature dancer. At Wellspring we strive for smart movers."

Modern dance is "eclectic; it pulls from ballet, pulls from jazz, from pedestrian movements, from hip hop, from theater," says Mitchell. As such, this dance form has wide appeal. "We've had a huge response from the artistic community in Kalamazoo...I think the community is ready for it, and I know that Wellspring is ready for it."