What’s doing in New York dance this fall? A lot. The season began with a bang last week when the Martha Graham Dance Company opened a two-week season at the Joyce Theater, the company’s first season in the city since 2004. Three different programs are being performed, and the works are intellect-and-viscera-gripping explorations and distillations of passion, vengeance, and self-actualization.

But while the Graham company’s return is big news, ballet abounds for most of the fall dance season. New York City Ballet opens its season at the New York State Theater on November 20, before beginning its perennial 45-performance season of “The Nutcracker” on November 23.

Columbia University’s Miller Theatre kicks off its 2007–2008 season with “New Ballet,” a yearly event masterminded by George Steel, artistic director of the Miller, on September 27. Mr. Steel has augmented the Miller‘s musical offerings by getting his toes wet in the production of new dance works. This year, “New Ballet” returns for a four-night run, with new works choreographed by Alison Chase, Amanda Miller, and Luca Veggetti to music by John Adams, Fred Frith, and Paolo Aralla. Regardless of the choreography, the musical and kinetic performances are sure to be first-rate: the dancers are drawn largely from NYCB, and the musicians reflect the Miller Theatre’s high standard.

American Ballet Theatre’s annual City Center season runs between October 23 and November 3. It’s one week shorter than last year’s ABT season there, but the two weeks are crowded with revivals and premieres. Two important works in the company’s history, Agnes de Mille’s 1948 “Fall River Legend,” and Antony Tudor’s 1975 “The Leaves Are Fading,” return after a decadelong absence. There’s also the company premiere of “Ballo Della Regina” by George Balanchine, who composed the work in 1978 as a vehicle for Merrill Ashley, who will restage it for ABT. Twyla Tharp’s 1979 “Baker’s Dozen,” will also enter ABT’s extensive catalog of Tharp works.

And there are two world premieres: a new work by Benjamin Millepied, set to a commissioned score by composer Nico Muhly with costumes by Mr. Millepied, and a new ballet by Jorma Elo, his second for ABT. It’s set to Philip Glass’s “A Musical Portrait of Chuck Close,” which pianist Bruce Levingston will perform onstage, and features backdrops by Mr. Close and costumes by fashion designer Ralph Rucci.

As has by now been widely publicized, Christopher Wheeldon is leaving his post as resident choreographer of New York City Ballet, and has taken on the formidable task of founding a new ballet company. Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company makes its New York debut at City Center beginning October 17. Two different programs include a slew of new works by Mr. Wheeldon, as well as the inclusion of repertory by Michael Clarke, William Forsythe, Edwaard Liang, and Liv Lorent. Distinguished dancers from around the world will be onstage.

But ballet, of course, will not be the only dance form on display, and City Center’s 10-day “Fall for Dance Festival,” which features mixed-bill programs and $10 tickets, and opens on September 26, provides a nice primer on the scope and variety of international dance.

This fall, Brooklyn Academy of Music’s “Next Wave Festival” nets a plethora of international choreographers and companies. There will be seasons by the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Nacho Duato’s Compania Nacional de Danza, Russell Maliphant from Britain, Finland’s Tero Saarinen, Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company, and Pappa Tarahumara from Japan. A BAM commission was awarded to American choreographer John Jasperse, whose new work “Misuse Liable to Prosecution,” is concerned with the issue of poverty.

After the Graham troupe’s appearance at the Joyce this month, the theater’s fall season continues featuring chamber ballet and modern dance companies. There are regular visitors: the companies of Molissa Fenley, James Sewell, Elisa Monte, Garth Fagan, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and Ballet Hispanico. And there are debuts — the first American appearance of the Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve.

Further downtown, St. Marks Church-in-the-Bowery’s Danspace Project convenes a “Near and Far East Mini Festival,” that opens October 4 with “A Slipping Glimpse,” a collaboration between the San Francisco-based Margaret Jenkins Dance Company and the Tanusree Shankar Dance Company in Kolkata, India. The performance occurs both inside and outside the venerable house of worship and performance space.

The fusion aesthetic dominates Dance Theater Workshop’s fall offerings as well, as it plays host to a wide range of performers, some new, some established, whose work blurs the boundaries of dance and performance art. While at the Kitchen, further west down 19th Street from DTW, the hive of multi-media offerings features among its movement entries a new work by David Gordon: “Uncivil Wars: Collaborating with Brecht & Eisler,” which probes the fissures and fractures engendered by war.