Organisers of the internationally-renowned Bath International Music Festival have added dance to the extravaganza for the first time this year.

And they've signed up a singer whose biggest hit is the perfect song to reflect the expansion.

Vocalist Martha Reeves took Dancing in the Streets to number two in the US Billboard charts in 1964 and then to number four in the UK when it was re-released five years later.

She will round off the 12-day festival which also features ballet dancing and traditional dance from the former Russian state of Georgia.

She and her group will be performing at the Pavilion.

Booking is now open for the festival, which will also bring music from funk to folk to the city.

A highlight will be the world premiere of a collaboration between the English National Ballet and Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen in Bath Abbey on Saturday June 5.

English National Ballet will also be bringing its full orchestra for a separate evening of romantic ballet music in The Forum.

On the first day of the festival, Wednesday May 26, Georgia's leading folk organisation, Rustavi Ensemble, will introduce the dance theme with striking performances combining singing and traditional dance.

Soul singer Reeves will host the festival closing party night with her Vandellas on Sunday June 6.

After a sell-out opera last year in the Roman Baths, the festival has commissioned a brand new staged production of Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt at the same venue. With a specially built stage erected in the water, the production will bring to life plagues including locusts, frogs, water turning to blood and even the parting of the Red Sea.

The festival's regular series, On the Edge of Life, which has previously covered issues of early life, homelessness and children, this year tackles war and its aftermath.

An installation of shoes at St Michael's Church in Broad Street will represent people's stories and, organisers say, reflect the piles of shoes found in Auschwitz and the symbolism of an Iraqi journalist throwing a shoe at then US president George Bush.

Other highlights include:

* a specially commissioned, staged production of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale performed by Charles Hazlewood and his ensemble Excellent Device with actors and dancers from Drama Centre in London.

* the big free event, Party in the City, which takes place on the first Friday of the festival, May 28. It will be renamed the Wylde Party in the City to reflect sponsorship by jeweller Nicholas Wylde and, coincidentally, the headline band Kansas-based bluegrass band The Wilders. A schools procession to the abbey will set the evening off and herald almost 100 other events on that one evening

* a celebration of Chopin's 200th birthday with a rare performance of all 58 of his mazurkas performed by fstival artistic director Joanna MacGregor in the Assembly Rooms.

* the life of singer Kathleen Ferrier being celebrated with a concert, film and an exhibition of her elegant eveningwear.

* appearances by jazz names such as Kenny Wheeler, David Murray and Martial Solal and funk legend, Booker T

* a concert by former Fairground Attraction singer Eddi Reader and a fascinating exploration of modern folk at the Rondo by writer Will Hodgkinson, who has travelled Britain in search of the sometimes eccentric and surprising traditions of the land. He will be joined by musicians and the Bathampton Morris Dancers.

For full details, go to www.bathmusicfest.org.uk and for tickets ring 01225 463362.