The late-blooming Matthew Bourne is a risk taker.

The London-born Bourne didn't see his first ballet until he was 19 years old. And he was 22 before he took his first professional dance lesson.

Today, at 45, Bourne is the most acclaimed choreographer in England and has earned a worldwide reputation for his groundbreaking dance programs.

He began his professional stage work in 1987 and came to global recognition when his efforts were featured in the film, "Billy Elliott," which featured the older Billy starring in Bourne's production of "Swan Lake." In fact, this "Swan Lake" sequence has probably been seen by more people than anything else he has done.

One of the hottest choreographers in the world today, Bourne has made a mission of updating classic ballets into witty, iconoclastic dance/theater spectacles that have become modern dance classics in their own right.

His "deconstructions" of the classics are attracting many theatergoers who might otherwise have never sprung for a ticket to the ballet. He's staged "Cinderella" set during the Blitz, a "Carmen" (called "The Car Man") set in a garage and "La Sylphide" about Glasgow's drug scene.

But his gender-bending mega-hit, "Swan Lake," is the work that has put Bourne on the map, with eager audiences flocking to sold-out houses around the world since it premiered in London in 1995.

His "Swan Lake" is not the "Swan Lake" that your grandmother threatened to take you to when you were a kid. That popular ballet classic concerns a prince named Siegfried who falls in love with a swan -- or rather, he falls in love with princess named Odette, who takes human form at night but each morning is turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer. A retinue of other swan-maidens attend her in the environs of Swan Lake, which was formed by the tears of Odette's parents when the sorcerer kidnapped her. The prince, while out hunting, sees her dancing in a moonlit glade by the lake and falls in love with her, and she with him.

With more than a nod to England's royal family, Bourne has rewritten the story to focus on a young prince raised by his mother, the queen, in a fatherless castle. The queen drags him to formal ceremonies and public appearances where he is set upon by a Fergie-type "girlfriend." Fed up with his lot in life, the young prince sets out for a night of revelry at Club Swank, where the night crawlers dance and knock back booze.

Cast out of the club, the prince stumbles onto a lake where something else is stirring. Here he encounters a flock of beguiling swans -- in reality, bare-chested, feather-legged men with menacing dark eyes and black streaks down the forehead -- that take him on a path he might have been looking for all along. It's here that Bourne injects the thread of homosexual awakening, much in the same way it was introduced in the award-winning Ang Lee film, "Brokeback Mountain."

Muscular, sinewy ensemble efforts replace traditional ballerinas in tutus and mind-boggling fouetts, with lots of foot stamping, heads cocked and bobbing, arms drawn up and then released in winged fashion in some of the most athletic choreography this balletomane has ever seen.

In fact, Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake" is a work that speaks to the present. Sure, it shows its classical upbringing, but it is full of sight gags with references to disco dancing, cell phones, au courant tango and pop culture.

Bourne's use of an all-male corps of swans gives the ballet a decidedly up-to-date spin. And with a company of exceptional dancers, lavish costumes and towering castle-inspired sets, this "Swan Lake" is a must for anyone who enjoys a good story and creative choreography. And of course, the wonderful Tchaikovsky score, played by a crack orchestra under the direction of Earl Stafford, is glorious listening.

While this is definitely an ensemble piece, several of the principals deserve special mention. On opening night, Alan Vincent danced the role of the swaggering swan leader, Neil Penlington was cast as the prince and Saranne Curtin as the queen. These roles rotate during the ballet's San Francisco engagement.

Staged at San Francisco's Orpheum Theater through April 16, Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake" is a riveting work, a brilliant restaging of a ballet classic. Tickets range from $35 to $78 for Tuesday through Thursday performances, $40 through $85 on weekends. They are available online at ticketmaster.com or by calling 415-512-7770.