Except for the saxophone cradled in front of her, its mouthpiece clamped between her lips, Amy Denio could have been mistaken for a modern dancer. She lay on the rehearsal hall floor with her legs stretched in front of her - one knee up - her weight resting on one elbow in a come-hither pose.

As the three other members of the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet backed her up, Denio finished her solo and slowly rose to her feet, playing all the while.

Meanwhile, four members of the Pat Graney Company, a Seattle modern dance troupe, ran, hurtled and sometimes slunk around Denio and the other musicians. Later on, in a move that might be called pirouetting saxophones, each dancer lifted one of the sax players - while they were playing - and slowly turned her around.

The Allegro! Dance Festival specializes in contemporary dance. It features the works of both nationally renowned choreographers and emerging regional artists. As the season opener, Pat Graney, recently returned from an East Coast tour, will be premiering "Sax House," set to music composed and performed by the Billy Tipton Saxophone Quartet. Also on the bill but in a totally different vein is "Jesus Loves the Little Cowgirls," set to the live country-Western tunes of Ranch Romance.

Choreographer Pat Graney, who in 1989 toured her new, namesake company throughout the United States, observed, ``There is a higher level of creative talent here than anywhere else I've been, outside of New York. Wherever I go, people tell me Seattle is a dance mecca. I say, `Really?' '' We don't always have that perception of it here.''

She said she thinks people here in the '90s will start thinking more about all kinds of dance, of the value of the work being done here. She thinks what Pacific Northwest Ballet co-artistic director Kent Stowell has done in buying and encouraging new choreography (Graney's ``Light Years'' is in the PNB repertoire), reflects a ``Let's try it'' attitude that will spill over throughout the entire dance community.