You’ve got to admire the chutzpah of a frustrated Benjamin  Millepied, resigning his Paris Opera Ballet directorship the night before premiering his dazzling “Appassionata” there in 2016.

This month the French choreographer set the S.F. Opera House afire with that same “Appassionata,” using absolute-minimum forces: Six dancers and a pianist (no orchestra). And not even pointe shoes. And he didn’t even resign.

Bodies flying uninhibitedly about the vast stage, whirling, thrusting, grabbing. The high-energy piece set to Beethoven  brought the audience to life Feb. 17 after a sedate Balanchine curtain-raiser. Millepied’s three couples keep changing partners in his  eyebrow-raising grabbag. And that was just the well-mannered opening, running 11 minutes, no less, akin to an Olympic 5,000 meter race. His finale looked more like a 2 AM  post-party revelry on some stranger’s lawn, with the women now thoroughly disheveled wearing just brief nighties. Unbridled passion is what it’s all about. And it hits with mind-blowing impact.

Millepied is not the first with a sexy ballet. But he’s among the first to combine it with ultra-high-energy movement in joyful exuberance along with the great challenge of filling a giant stage with a mere sextet.

The second movement is an ardent duo, danced this time languidly by Jennifer Stahl and Aaron Robinson, sealing the love-play with a kiss. The outer movements also feature the women Mathilde Froustey and Madison Keesler, with matching male partners.

This is Program Two, with three works, each appealing to a different generation. For the veteran balletomane, there’s Balanchine’s tidy and predictable Mozart ballet, “Divertimento No. 15” (1956),  with every single move and step straight out of the ballet-class book (attitude, pirouette, arabesque, etc.). “Appassionata” stokes the fires of the in-between generation. And for the young people, there’s Justin Peck’s sneakers-and-ponytail dance piece with an electronic rock score.

Peck’s “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” (2018) features 14 seemingly in reflective rehearsal togs, walking and running randomly on a space seen as if viewed from backstage. These habile revolutionaries are cast in fast-flying ensembles and pas de deux, with various figures tossed up in the air, and others displaying the most nimble, pliable frames, much of it to music of an electronic organ that, this time, DOESN’T blast your ears off. Ladies in ponytails, and all in sneakers—very today.

Peck is one of the hot N.Y. creative artists, simultaneously soloist and resident choreographer of the N.Y.C. Ballet.

DANCE NOTES— Memorable in the Balanchine opus was Joseph Walsh, the highest-ranking US-born male in the whole SFB company; and his elevation on stage looked equally grand… Ballet casts change nightly….Millepied, now director of the L.A. Dance Project, is the husband of film actress Natalie Portman…The very sensitive pianist playing the Beethoven “Appassionata” was a new name to us: Natal’ya Feygina. Watch for her on the recital scene.

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET, Program Two, viewed Feb. 17. Through Feb. 23. For SFB info: (415) 865-2000, or go online.