Since its inception three years ago, City Center’s Fall for Dance festival has been a runaway success. With mixed company bills and $10 tickets, the shows have sold out nearly immediately. So this year, with 28 companies participating and all tickets once again cheaper than that of a movie, handicapping the shows ahead of the September 9 on sale date is once again a necessity. Herewith, a rundown of what’s worth fighting for.

Fall for Dance offers six different programs performed over 10 days, and its repertory trends toward diversity, eclecticism, and accessibility. It reflects the melting-pot heterogeneity of New York City itself, sampling from cultures and companies from every corner of the globe. Cultural cross-references are also a consistent repertory choice by the festival’s planners. For example, this year offers not only hip-hop, but hip-hop as interpreted by the French company Compagnie Käfig, which comes to Fall for Dance on September 28.

City Center, not averse to mining the programming for a little self promotion, also presents the Paul Taylor Dance Company and St. Petersburg’s Kirov Ballet during the festival’s first two nights; both companies will return to City Center later in the season for engagements of their own. Also participating in Fall for Dance on October 4 is Christopher Wheeldon’s highly anticipated new troupe Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, which will make its New York debut at City Center next month. And American Ballet Theatre, which offers its annual City Center season beginning next month, joins Fall for Dance on the 28th.

For Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo, resident choreographer at the Boston Ballet, City Center’s stage is by now something of a second home. During its City Center season a year ago, ABT gave the world premiere of a new Elo work, and it will again present an Elo commission next month. While at this year’s Fall for Dance, the Boston Ballet will perform Mr. Elo’s “Brake the Eyes,” which was first performed in Boston earlier this year.

For emerging companies, inclusion in Fall for Dance is an honor and a chance for valuable exposure. The fact that Keigwin + Company is performing on two dates — October 2 and 3— is certainly an indication that Mr. Keigwin’s quirky troupe, which was founded in 2003, has more than arrived.

Fall for Dance also welcomes companies entirely new to America. This year marks the first appearance for the Royal Ballet of Flanders. Also making their American debuts are the Via Katlehong Dance from South Africa — which specializes in gum-boot dancing, originally developed by miners subjected to the heinous conditions of South African gold mines — and London’s Srishti-Nina Rajarani Dance Creations, which attempts a marriage of contemporary urban freneticism to traditional Indian dance.

As in the past, Fall for Dance steers pretty clear of classical ballet.

Even the Kirov won’t perform classical ballet, but will perform instead Alexei Ratmansky’s “Middle Duet,” which the choreographer created for the company in 1998. Yes, the woman is en pointe in this duet, but this piece is about introducing a moving sidewalk edge to the balletic steps. Similarly, the Royal Ballet of Flanders will offer a contemporary piece en pointe, “Cornered,” which is a series of duets. And New York City Ballet will be represented by Jerome Robbins’s “A Suite of Dances.” Originally created for Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1994, it is danced these days by Damian Woetzel. And Mr. Wheeldon’s company will perform the pas de deux from his “After the Rain,” which, of all his works, is probably the one most indebted to modern dance.

Swedish choreographer Mats Ek is renowned for his series of re-workings of venerable classical ballets, transplanting them into the most incongruous of settings: Goodbye royal court, hello mental institution. This year, Fall for Dance hosts the American premiere of a duet, “Memory,” performed by Mr. Ek and his wife, Ana Laguna. There will be one classic ballet offering, though: ABT weighs in with that most familiar of balletic warhorses, the “Le Corsaire” pas de deux.

Fall for Dance doesn’t usually bank on famous names from the international guest artist circuit; the reputations of repertories must speak for themselves. An exception this year is Johan Kobborg, who will dance a solo, Tim Rushton’s “Afternoon of a Faun,” that he performed last year at City Center during the “Four Kings” season. Mr. Kobborg is always worth seeing, and Fall for Dance is again this year offering something for everyone.