Ballet returns to Lincoln Center tonight when New York City Ballet kicks off its winter season at State Theater. The program is billed as “An American Music Celebration” and will contain three ballets set to music created on these shores: Jerome Robbins’s “N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz” (music by Robert Prince), Peter Martins’s “Fearful Symmetries” (music by John Adams), and the premiere of Albert Evans’s “John Cage in a Landscape” (music by John Cage).

City Ballet has been making a sustained effort to advance the state of ballet choreography. Part of that effort involves encouraging the company’s own dancers – such as Mr. Evans – to create dances. But he’s not the only performer doing the choreography thing lately. Soloist Edwaard Liang also has been making dances around town and meeting with snowballing success. In interviews with both of them, it’s clear the combination of dancing and making dances enriches the art form.

Mr. Evans, a principal since 1995, is an elegant interpreter of Balanchine choreography, and in the last few years he has been creating his own choreography, too. His new work – which will be performed only once this season – is a duet for Wendy Whelan and Philip Neal, both City Ballet veterans.

“You choreograph with them, then go and dance with them,” he said. “There’s more pressure on you when you choreograph on your colleagues. From dancing with them, they expect a certain style and movement. It’s a bit intimidating.”

But Mr. Evans is used to it by now. His 2002 “Haiku,” created for the Diamond Project, used several City Ballet dancers.And in 2003, he created a solo for Peter Boal, who danced the work at the Joyce Theater.

Being on both sides of the creative process has helped Mr. Evans learn more about the craft. “You learn from choreographers, and you appreciate how difficult it must have been to create something like that,” he said.

Does he ever want to put himself in his own pieces? Not really. “I like to see the steps come alive on a different body, completely different than what I would do,” he said.

While Mr. Evans has remained close to home, Mr. Liang has danced and choreographed for a variety of companies. A product of the School of American Ballet, Mr. Liang started out his career as an apprentice to NYCB. After becoming a soloist in 1998, he joined the cast of Broadway’s “Fosse” and was a guest artist with Complexions. In 2003, he left to dance with the Nederlands Dans Theater 1, where he tried his hand at dance making. The result was “Flight of Angels,” a work set to music by John Taverner.

“When I was dancing with NDT, I was really encouraged,” Mr. Liang said. “I did a workshop piece. It was just a quick little thing.”

It was quick, but it turned out to be good: The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet later asked to dance it in their theater. Mr. Liang then created a work for a small dance troupe called Configurations, and in the spring of 2004, he returned to City Ballet with his eye on dancing.

But word of his choreographic talents spread upon his return to the company. Fellow company member Peter Boal commissioned a piece, “Distant Cries,” for his own small company. It premiered in March 2005 with Peter Boal & Dancers, and NYCB presented it at a winter gala. Around the same time, the Choreographic Institute (an affiliate of NYCB) asked Mr. Liang to take part in its workshop.

More recently, the Cedar Lake Ensemble commissioned a work from him.The result was “The Mortal Coil,” a contemporary work with lots of hand and arm movement. “It wasn’t about trying to make a master piece. It was a chance to experiment,” he said.

After Cedar Lake, Mr. Liang flew out to spend time with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, which had commissioned yet another work. This one will be set to a Philip Glass score for the Brazilian group Uakti, and will debut at the Joyce this winter.

And if that’s not enough, in March the Taiwan-born dancer will travel to China to work with the Shanghai Ballet, and he hopes to take American dancers to visit the mainland. “I really want to bring as many different types of dance to China,” he said. “I’ve been trying to do this for many years.”

Exhausting? Yes. But this is one motivated artist. “I want to try everything,” Mr. Liang said. “Our careers are so short. I want to do ballet, modern, music videos.”

His drive comes partly from the newness of it all. “I never thought of myself as a choreographer. I like the feeling of being creative and constantly in the moment,” he said.

The opportunities that have come his way seem to fuel his eagerness to do more – and to remind him to be humble and grateful. “I have appreciation for everything,” he said. “Who knows if you’re going to be one of those choreographers who makes it to the next decade?”

And he’s not afraid to be enthusiastic about other artists he admires. When he ran into Mr. Glass, he could barely contain himself: “I was in the elevator with him in the Rose building. All I could say was “Hi!” and shake his hand.”

Even though he has produced a number of works, Mr. Liang seems a bit awed by it all – and a little shy about calling himself a choreographer. “Choreography is such a huge surprise. I don’t take any of it for granted,” he said.

New York City Ballet holds its opening night gala benefit tonight at the New York State Theater (Lincoln Center, 212-870-5570).