DANCE in peacock-rich variety is displayed currently on the New York scene with Julio Bocca’s own Ballet Argentino at City Center through tomorrow and the very different Dayton Contemporary Dance Company at the Joyce Theater through Sunday.

Ballet Argentino offers a shrewd mix of classic ballet, third-stream dance and the Argentine tango, together with a twist of pure showbiz.

This is the brilliant young troupe’s third New York season, and the current program opens with “Don Quixote,” where Bocca’s own pyrotechnical display is pretty much matched by the young Luciana Paris.

The choreographic highlight was Mauro Bigonzetti’s “Sinfonia Entrelazada,” a Shakespearean fantasy, by a cast led by Cecilia Figaredo, Bocca, Paris and Benjamin Parada.

The evening’s close is “Piazzolla Tango Vivo,” choreographed by Ana Maria Stekelman. It goes on a little, but just to see Bocca perform a duet with a table is worth the ticket price.

Meanwhile, downtown at the Joyce Theater, the Dayton Contemporary Dance is back, and as vibrant and electrifying as ever.

The program opens with new artistic director Kevin Ward’s own “Sets and Chasers,” an agreeable session of jitterbug-era dance to Duke Ellington music.

Dwight Rhoden’s “Sky Garden,” is a closely constructed, handsomely danced ballet, and “Children of the Passage” is an exciting dance collaboration between veteran choreographer Donald McKayle and the promising Ronald K. Brown.

Here is a kind of Creole “Masque of the Red Death” with a happy ending and terrific music.

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Ballet Argentino, City Center, 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues; (212) 581- 1212. Through tomorrow.

Dayton Contemporary Dance, Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave., at 19th Street; (212) 242- 0800. Through Sunday.