The Stephen Petronio Dance Company is wrapping their 25th Anniversary season with a six-night run at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea.  The acclaimed modern dance company is performing five pieces for the occasion, including #3(performed by Petronio himself, 25 years after he firstchoreographed the number in his tiny apartment above Yaffa Café on St.Marks Place -- the unofficial artist thoroughfare during that time).  To close the show, the company presents Ghostown, a brand new dance to beat-less, entrancing music by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood.

In creating Ghostown, Petronio deliberately challenged himselfby using music without hard beats. "I'm a beat-addict, and after twenty-fiveyears, I wondered, 'What will happen if I take that away?' I like todiscover the possibilities."  He developed the choreography with hisdancers, transforming little everyday gestures into something morelyrical. The mood is curious and a little haunting -- like you knowsomething happened here, but you don't know exactly what. "Ghostown is meant to conceal as much information as it's meant to reveal," he noted.

Over the years, Petronio has enlisted the help of many talented emerging designers to outfit his dancers.  After working with Adam Kimmel, Benjamin Cho, H. Petal, Rachel Roy, Tara Subkoff, and many others, he had Jillian Lewis create costumes for Ghostown.Her gauzy swirls of sheer, flowy fabric in nude and gray tones bringan elegant sense of movement to the piece.  A former dancer herself,Lewis understands the materials and details that work best whilstleaping, twirling and thrashing about on stage (i.e., extra crotch andleg seams). "I approach the design two-fold: first, on an athleticlevel -- the fit on the body, the right fabrics for sweating andmoving, etc. Then there's a layer of looser pieces I add. These aremore fashionable and create an illusion of floating shapes andinvisibility."  Watching weeks of rehearsals, absorbing the music and consultingwith the lighting department helped Lewis develop something special --or "spiritual," she says -- for Petronio's anniversary.

The show ends May 2.  You can still grab tickets, with prices starting as low as $10.

Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave.
(212) 691-9740
http://www.joyce.org/