San Francisco Ballet

DANCE San Francisco Ballet's "Fridays at the Ballet" are not exactly TGIF occasions, but they are a great way to shove work out of your mind. For a date night, they can't be beat. Designed to attract young professionals and ballet newbies, "Fridays" are double whammies: drinks and hors d'oeuvres at the Soluna Café (near the Opera House, at McAllister and Larkin) starting at 5:30 p.m. and an orchestra or dress circle seat for the ballet at 8 p.m. — all for $42. The next "Fridays" performance includes the all–Jerome Robbins program and offers a particularly fabulous opportunity to make the acquaintance (or reacquaintance) of world-class dance at a bargain price. Robbins may be best known for his musicals (On the Town, Fiddler on the Roof, and West Side Story), but he also choreographed 66 stunning ballets, the majority of them for the New York City Ballet. A stickler for perfection, Robbins could be merciless when dealing with performers, but what he has left for us to enjoy is sublime. Each of the pieces on SFB's current program showcase Robbins's ability to veer between abstraction and narration in completely different ways. Afternoon of a Faun, maybe Robbins's greatest work, is set in a ballet studio and looks at the fuzzy line between image and reality; Dybbuk delves into Jewish legend and mysticism; Glass Pieces rocks with urban rhythms as urban rituals. See Stage listings for additional performances of the Robbins program. (Rita Felciano)

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET Fri/10, 5:30 p.m. (performance 8 p.m.)

War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness, SF. $42. (415) 865-2000, www.sfballet.org/fridays