October 2, 2002

THERE ARE TWO top-notch choreographers working in France today. One is Maguy Marin, whose parents are Spanish; the other is Angelin Preljocaj, who is of Alabanian descent. Not surprisingly, they couldn't be more different from each other. Preljocaj, whose Ballet Preljocaj is making its third visit to the Bay Area this week, has one foot in the past – he regularly reinterprets Diaghilev-era repertoire – and one in the future, seen in the sci-fi quality of some of his ballets. Yet wherever he stands, he keeps you at the edge of your seat with fiercely physical choreography that embraces tenderness as well as brutality. In the current program, composed of Bay Area premieres, you can expect some of each. Rite of Spring is set to Igor Stravinsky's distinctive score. The first performance of the music in 1913 Paris caused a riot, and it can still can raise the hair at the back of your neck. Helikopter translates Karlheinz Stockhausen's 1995 string quartet into dance. The score (for this performance, a recording by the extraordinary Arditti Quartet) is inspired by the sounds of a helicopter's whirring blades.