Stephen Petronio Company

Thurs/31-Sun/3,

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater

STEPHEN PETRONIO IS quite simply one of the hottest choreographers of his generation. He is also one of the coolest. No contradiction here – it's just what he is. Petronio thrives on what ordinary folks would consider opposites, hitting, as he once said, "the center of the brain and the pelvis at the same time." The world premiere of the first part of Strange Attractors – a term derived from chaos theory, which studies unpredictability within ordered systems – took place here in 1999, and I have been waiting ever since to see how much further Petronio would push his work. Though set to a rather vapid Michael Nyman score, Attractors was breathtaking in its daring, its rigor, and the sheer beauty of Petronio's dancers. For Attractors Part II, Petronio uses the music of another Brit, James Lavelle, and a commissioned set by sculptor Anish Kapoor that's made of reflective metal disks. The second part was choreographed in 2000, so why did it take the company so long to come back? Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m. (also Sat. 2 p.m.); Sun., 2 p.m., 700 Howard, S.F. $6-$35. (415) 392-4400. (Rita Felciano)