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‘‘ADI’s theater is a little diamond,” says Pam Bjerknes. ‘‘Accessible, affordable, with world-class performers.

‘‘We want to keep building on the onstage performance aspect of the theater – and with the Joffrey and now the Giordano, we’re able to offer a master class, too, for high school and college-age dancers.”

That means there’s a place for every kind of dance lover, from the novice to the professional and everyone in between.

Michael Bjerknes says that in addition to offering ballet, modern and jazz dance classes as well as Pilates, his non-profit wants to expose the community to professional dance in all its glory

‘‘We’re trying to bring in excellent, nationally and internationally recognized companies,” he says. ‘‘And have a balance of different genres. Giordano is more jazz, Joffrey is more balletic. We want to educate our community and the community at large that there is more than one kind of dance.”

Bringing in companies is one way to do that. Nurturing local dance companies is another — and the Bjerknes are doing that, too, with ADI’s Incubator Program. BosmaDance, Ed Tyler and Edgeworks use the ADI space courtesy of this annually curated program.

‘‘They’re emerging groups,” Michael Bjerknes explains. ‘‘Some have ‘emerged’ very far — like Edgeworks. [The program] is mainly to give them a space where they can feel safe, and create good work in a nonjudgmental environment.”

It’s an environment for which Tony Powell is grateful. The Silver Spring dancer⁄choreographer’s Tony Powell Dance isn’t part of the Incubator Program at ADI, but Powell choreographed a piece for Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. ‘‘Impulse” will be performed this weekend; it’s Powell’s second commission for Nan Giordano, daughter of the company founder, dance pioneer Gus Giordano.

‘‘I needed something to hang onto,” admits Powell, a D.C.-born, Juilliard-trained former child prodigy whose career has been touched – for good and bad – by struggles with drugs and alcohol.

‘‘In May of last year, she [Nan Giordano] finally called and said, ‘You know, I was never going to work with you again,’” says Powell, now in recovery. ‘‘’But ... will you come and do a piece?’

‘‘It made me believe I was going to work again.”

For Powell, plucked out of his Chevy Chase Elementary School as a fourth-grader to perform in Europe, the chance to create dance for this particular company right here in his own backyard is an incredible opportunity.

‘‘Gus Giordano, he’s a wonderful legend,” says Powell. ‘‘He’s got the oldest jazz company in the country.”

Powell, who calls himself ‘‘a constructivist,” says he’s happiest when designing dances for full groups of dancers. He uses computer technology in the process.

For his newest work ‘‘Impulse,” he says, ‘‘I wanted to start from a place where I was completely ignited by the music, trying to bring the subconscious to the foreground instead of trying to analyze everything. It’s an unfolding stream of consciousness from start to finish.”

Not unlike the art form of jazz itself. For Powell, it’s about new beginnings, for ADI it’s about celebrating diversity in dance and for Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, it’s about all that jazz.

Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago performs at the American Dance Institute, 1570 East Jefferson St., Rockville at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students with a valid ID, seniors and children. Call 301-984-3003 or visit www.americandance.org.