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Exhale Dance Tribe is breathing new life into the regional dance scene.

Even while enjoying a career on stage herself, with roles in both the Broadway and national tours of "Cats" and the tour of "Jesus Christ Superstar," Cincinnati native Missy Lay Zimmer felt the call to do something greater.

"We felt like there was something more we could do with our lives, to give something back in a different way that was not all about us," she said.

With the presence and influence of the Cincinnati Ballet, Zimmer said there was a lot of professional training opportunities for young people in that area, but not so much in jazz and Broadway style dance. So she found a kindred spirit in fellow "Cats" cast member Andrew Hubbard, and the two came to Cincinnati six years ago to form Planet Dance, a school devoted to modern dance education.

They discovered such a pool of talent, however, that a year ago they created the Exhale Dance Tribe as a performance wing of the school. While the group made its premiere in New York City, it has since performed at the Contemporary Arts Center, the Contemporary Dance Theatre, the Know Theatre Company and the New Stage Collective.

"We're definitely making our roots and we feel like we're doing a lot in the city," she said.

Exhale's newest production, "Aren't We All But a Dance of Particles?", is "an archetypal journey based on the tarot cards," Zimmer said, "about how the Fool is transformed, using a variety of music, from the soundtrack to 'Pee Wee's Big Adventure' to Cameo's 'Word Up.' "

how to go

WHAT: "Aren't We All But A Dance of Particles?"

WHERE: Know Theatre of Cincinnati, 1120 Jackson St., Cincinnati.

WHEN: 8 p.m. today, Saturday, March 30-31; 4 p.m. Sunday and April 2, 2007.

COST: $20 general admission; $15 student/senior; $10 student rush.

MORE INFO: (513) 621-2787; exhaledance.com.