PORTLAND – Marking a new emphasis on dance, PCA Great Performances is bringing three exceptional dance companies to Maine in January, February and April.

The first of these presentations is “Lunar Sea” by MOMIX, the internationally acclaimed company of dancer/illusionists – so well acclaimed, in fact, that the Jan. 24 performance is sold out.

Next on the schedule is Limón Dance Company (Feb. 27), followed by Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, which appears on April 9.

Aimée M. Petrin, executive director and artistic director of PCA Great Performances, emphasized that each of the three dance presentations differs significantly, but each represents the highest level of excellence in its genre.

She said the MOMIX show is fanciful and highly visual, while the Limón company presents a “lyrical and lush” reconstruction of an earlier seminal work; and the Ron Brown dance pieces link Africa, the Carribean and the streets of America.

MOMIX gained its sell-out reputation in Maine through two or three popular appearances in Portland and one performance brought to Lewiston by L/A Arts.

“Lunar Sea,” the newest MOMIX show, is a procession of dreamlike sequences performed mostly in black light with glowing phosphorescent shapes rather than identifiable human forms. Bodies glow in the dark and vanish back into it. Otherworldly creatures walk, swim, sit and float on the air.

Because of the requirements for near total darkness during the Jan. 24 performance, PCA is advising ticketholders that aisle lighting will be turned off, and everyone in the audience should remain seated to the end of the 90-minute, no-intermission show.

Although the dance performance is sold out, places are still available for a dance masterclass with a MOMIX member. This opportunity for intermediate dances is offered from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 25, at Portland Arts and Technology High School. There is a $20 class fee.

Petrin said there also will be dance master classes for both Limón and Ronald K. Brown, along with video and/or audio-visual presentations that will serve to further contextualize the artists and their work.

“Jose Limón is the grandfather of the series,” Petrin said. His work is placed firmly in the legacy of contemporary dance shared by Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan, Alvin Ailey and others.

Now celebrating its 60th anniversary, his company is more than ever an example of why American dance took the world by storm, expressing through dazzling theatrical movement the turns and celebrations of the human spirit.

The program for Limón Dance Company will include “The Traitor,” which is the famed choreographer’s seminal work. This piece, known as a ballet and/or a dance drama,” transplants the tragedy of Judas to modern times to offer Limón’s pointed response to the McCarthy hearings that heated the political climate of the 1950s.

Petrin said this piece is being “reconstructed” or “restaged,” thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts and its American Masters Dance program. “This support is illustrative of Limón’s stature as one of the great dance makers,” she affirmed.

The company premiered “The Traitor” at the 1954 American Dance Festival. The piece, set to music by Gunther Schuller (Symphony for Brasses), is known for its “arresting originality of movement,” theatrical vividness and great drama, said Petrin.

“The here and now” is represented in the April appearance by the Ron Brown Dance Company, according to Petrin. Ronald K. Brown and his dance company Evidence blend African, modern ballet and hip-hop stylings to tell stories about what matters to the human experience. The program includes selections set to music by Nina Simone, Bob Marley, Fela Kuti and the Kronos Quartet.

Petrin said Brown’s dance pieces present “a gestural vocabulary that’s very evocative.”

Information about the PCA Great Performances programs can be found online at www.pcagreatperformances.org. For tickets, call PortTix at 842-0800.