‘Unrestrained, there seems to be no limits to which dancing will not descend,” decreed the infamous Watch and Ward Society, which sought to make belly dancing, barefoot dancing and other suspect forms of movement “banned in Boston,” warning against vice “made possible under the pretext of ‘art.’ ” But less than a century after Mayor Andrew Peters considered shutting down a Ziegfeld Follies performance for fear the dancers would show too much leg, we’ve evolved into a city where dance is a major feature of the cultural landscape. And some of the most cutting-edge work in the genre is being performed, and even premiered, right here.

“Boston has always had wonderful dance audiences, but now there’s a greater hunger for really smart, adventurous work,” says native son David Parker, the celebrated choreographer (and offspring of the late author Robert B. Parker and his philanthropist wife, Joan). For the past few years, David Parker and his New York-based Bang Group have been at the forefront of an exciting new dance/cabaret genre, creating works that he describes as what happens when “high and low art meet and make out on a nightclub stage.” The idea harks back to the days of elegant supper clubs, and while Parker characterizes the shows as “fully realized and seriously wrought,” he says that the cabaret setting liberates his imagination in ways that a concert stage doesn’t allow.

This month, Parker brings two such shows to the Oberon theater in Cambridge: Head Over Heels, which he describes as “a kind of Jules et Jim in tap shoes,” and ShowDown, set to Irving Berlin’s score for Annie Get Your Gun. “I think Boston’s dance community is poised to take a big leap forward,” says Parker, who’s tapping local talent for his March 28 performance. “For the final night of my run at Oberon, I’ve commissioned three Boston choreographers—Lorraine Chapman, Kelli Edwards and Nicole Pierce—to make works that will share the stage with my piece ShowDown.” Furthermore, Parker notes that he’s working in partnership with DanceNow/NYC to put down roots in Boston and create a touring circuit that will exchange shows between the two cities.

Urbanity Dance studio shots

Equally exciting is the East Coast premiere of contemporary dance deity Mark Morris’ Acis and Galatea, running May 15-18. Presented at Citi Shubert Theatre by the Celebrity Series of Boston, the new production from Mark Morris Dance Group is based on Mozart’s arrangement of the opera by Handel. Drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the story follows a shepherd boy who falls in love with a nymph on a Mediterranean isle. In addition to Morris’ choreography, the production will feature costumes by designer Isaac Mizrahi, sets by Broadway veteran Adrianne Lobel and live orchestral and vocal accompaniment courtesy of Boston’s own Handel and Haydn Society. A collaboration of this caliber—fusing some of the top talent from the worlds of dance, fashion, theater and music—is a sure sign of increased interest in dance. And the fact that Acis and Galatea will be shown here in Boston before gracing a stage in New York is an indication of Boston’s increasing prominence in the dance world.

“The selection of Boston for the East Coast premiere of Acis and Galatea,” Morris says, “is a combination of ongoing support from the Celebrity Series, Bostonians’ keen interest in my work and my dance group’s long history performing in the city. All of this keeps us coming back nearly every year.”

Of course, Boston’s homegrown dance scene is equally impressive. For proof, one need look no further than Boston Ballet, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary season. Arguably, there are only three other companies in the U.S.—New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and the San Francisco Ballet—that can claim to perform at the same artistic level, and none can also boast of an educational program as ambitious as that of Boston Ballet. “We have the largest ballet school in the country by a wide margin, teaching all levels from pre-professional to adult beginner,” says board of overseers chair John Osbon. “Almost all Boston Ballet teachers have themselves had significant professional ballet performing careers, many of them at the principal level.”

Its programming, meanwhile, goes far beyond classical story ballets, like the current lush production of Sir Frederick Ashton’s fairy tale Cinderella, to include the decidedly radical, like the recently performed Bella Figura—Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián’s tour de force that includes topless dancers of both sexes wearing full red skirts. The rest of this season includes Pricked, which runs May 8-18 and features two American premieres among its three ballets. In D.M.J. 1953-1977, Petr Zuska uses music by three Czech composers and armfuls of roses in a ballet that resembles Druids dancing around Stonehenge more than anything from Swan Lake, while Alexander Ekman’s Cacti is percussive, frenetic and wholly untraditional. Rounding out that program is Harald Landers’ homage to the art form, Études, which takes a traditional ballet class and stands it completely on its head. Then, from May 22 to June 1, Boston Ballet will conclude its season with George Balanchine’s Jewels, which has been referred to as “the first full-length abstract” ballet, before the company leaves to tour New York—for its debut performance at Lincoln Center—and Washington, D.C.

And that’s not all that’ll keep us on the edge of our seats. Here are six more dance performances you won’t want to miss this spring:

•  Characterized by explosive movement and an almost feral stage presence, contemporary company BodyTraffic was founded in 2007 by Lillian Barbeito and Tina Finkelman Berkett. Named one of Dance magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2013 and dubbed “the company of the future” by the Joyce Theater Foundation, it commissions some of the most innovative choreographers and showcases their work with bravura performances. The L.A.-based troupe makes its Boston debut April 11-12 at the Institute of Contemporary Art with Sidra Bell’s Beyond the Edge of the Frame, MacArthur fellow Kyle Abraham’s Kollide and Richard Siegal’s jazzy o2Joy.

•  José Mateo Ballet Theatre, which produces striking original work by the Cuban-born dancer/choreographer, closes its 28th season with New Eruptions. Running April 25 to May 11, the show includes Mateo’s 2012 work Taking Turns, set to a Philip Glass score, as well as the premiere of an unnamed new ballet. It will be performed in the Sanctuary Theatre in the Old Cambridge Baptist Church, a unique space that affords audiences rare proximity to the performers. (For more dance on a nontraditional stage, stay tuned for Mateo’s sixth annual Dance for World Community Festival, June 13-15, featuring a range of troupes performing outside in Harvard Square.)

•  April 16-19, The Boston Conservatory will present Limitless, a program featuring Mark Morris’ Canonic  3/4 Studies, Karole Armitage’s Rave and works by Tommy Neblett and Dwight Rhoden, the artistic director of Complexions Dance Company. Morris’ piece, based upon songs in three-quarter time, offers a contemporary take on waltzes, while Rhoden, a former star with Alvin Ailey, is widely hailed as one of the country’s leading contemporary choreographers. (Friday’s matinee is a free performance for individuals with special needs and their families and is not open to the general public.)

•  A contemporary troupe of 30-plus versatile performers with diverse dance backgrounds, Urbanity Dance is led by former Boston Ballet School teacher Betsi Graves and has performed at stages such as the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires and the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater in New York. So we’ve got high expectations for its Spring Revue, being performed May 2-3 at the Boston University Dance Theater, especially since the company won our Boston’s Best award in 2012. It’s only picked up speed since, with plans to move into a big new headquarters on Washington Street this spring.

•  Your average flash mob has nothing on Le Grand Continental, a free public event hosted by Celebrity Series of Boston May 16-18 in Copley Square. The brainchild of Montreal-based choreographer Sylvain Émard, the outdoor dance extravaganza will engage 150 Bostonians of all ages, shapes and sizes in a contemporary line dance—no prior dance experience required, though they’re already hard at work in rehearsal. The end result: a Bollywood-scale spectacle in downtown Boston, guaranteed to put a smile on your face and some pep in your step.

•  Peter DiMuro danced his first pro performance at Cambridge’s Dance Complex, but in more recent years the choreographer has made waves in Philadelphia and D.C. with his company Public Displays of Motion. Now he’s back where it all began, serving as executive director of the Dance Complex. And from May 19 through June 22, he’ll also be in residence at the Boston Center for the Arts, developing dances with Public Displays of Motion. The new works will debut with performances on June 20-21, serving as companion pieces to the award-winning Norman Allen play Nijinsky’s Last Dance, which depicts the legendary dancer institutionalized at the end of his life.