BAY AREA PREMIERE.

San Francisco Performances opens its four-program dance season on November 4 with the world premiere of Stephen Petronio's Strange Attractors, set to a commissioned score by British composer Michael Nyman. The Stephen Petronio Dance Company is currently in the third year of a four-year artist's residency in San Francisco, sponsored by SFP. In addition to annual performances and the creation of new work, the residency includes substantial outreach activities, among them, a children's matinee on November 6.

Partnered on equal footing by SFP's chamber music offerings, and perhaps spurred on by the parallel-running Dance/Screen (a video series that puts the dance programs into the context of another artist's output), SFP has succeeded in substantially increasing its dance audiences. Contrary to national trends, SFP dance subscriptions are up 20 percent this year, according to Nancy Martino, SFP's consultant for dance programs.

Also scheduled for this season is the Los Angeles-based, ten-member Diavolo Dance Company, run by French-born choreographer Jacques Helm (January 20 to 22). In their first San Francisco appearance, the company will perform the French-inspired Catapult: La Comedie Humaine and a less formal afternoon of contemporary dance in which dancers will demonstrate and explain what they do. After many years of absence, Canada's La La La Human Steps will finally return with Salt (February 10 to 12); Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company's Out Some Place (March 30 to April 1) completes the 1999 season.