Trolley passengers won’t be the only ones moving around downtown transit stops later this month. The 12th annual Trolley Dances will turn six sites downtown into impromptu dance studios Sept. 25-26 and Oct. 2-3. “Downtown and Harbor Drive is an area that a lot of San Diegans do visit, but I bet they haven’t seen the places we’re going to take them to,” said Jean Isaacs, artistic director of San Diego Dance Theater. “It’s kind of like a little trolley treasure hunt of dances.” Trolley Dances is a unique blend of life and art, a partnership between Metropolitan Transit Services (MTS) and the Point Loma-based San Diego Dance Theater. Six tours will be held each of the event’s four days from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. “We work with MTS to figure out what line we want to go on and then we bring choreographers out,” Isaacs said. “They come out with us and look at interesting spots around the trolley.” The annual event was created in 1999 to coincide with new trolley stations or lines, and was held in East Village in 2006. Trolley Dances has not been downtown since 2000. “The new dance locations are going to show off some areas that people may not have seen yet that are new in downtown; the area behind the convention center is new and it looks gorgeous,” said Judy Leitner, MTS marketing manager. The guided trolley tour starts at the One America Plaza building and continues to the New Children’s Museum before ending at the Hilton Bayfront, with dance sites along the way. At each site, choreographers take their surroundings into account while creating a unique piece. “This year is very vibrant in the sense of where we are,” Isaacs said. “It’s lively and much more light and fun.” Along with Isaacs, who has dance sites at the County Administration Building and inside the New Children’s Museum, four other choreographers will have dances downtown. In addition to locals Bradley Lundberg and Patricia Sanback, Monica Bill Barnes (New York) and Isabel Beteta de Cou (Mexico City) will bring an out-of-town flavor to the performances, which feature a total of 56 dancers. “We set them up with a sound system and the whole venue, and a rehearsal time and place, and the dancers, and they have to create. It’s very interesting to them,” Isaacs said. “They come in about a week before the show and they work every day with their cast. So I have no idea what theirs will be like except where the sites are.” In addition to comfortable walking shoes, Isaacs encourages those wanting to attend Trolley Dances to beat the crowds by taking a tour on the first weekend. But even among large crowds, Issacs said, there is not a bad vantage point from anywhere in the audience. “There’s not any one viewing position that’s better than another. People need to be very resilient about how and where they’re watching the pieces from, and we help them with that,” Isaacs said. “It’s a very adventurous way to see dance.” Tickets for Trolley Dances cost $30 for adults, $20 for seniors and $15 for students and include a free all-day trolley pass. For more information or tickets, visit www.sandiegodancetheater.org/trolley-dances.html. “For the people who are there on purpose, it really expands your horizons; and for the people who are normally using transit as transportation, you see in their faces a little delight,” Leitner said. “This sort of jazzes up their day. It makes them feel good about where they are.”