From men in white tutus to Chinese acrobats, arts centers throughout the East Valley will offer audiences more than the typical theater experience this season.

“I look for diverse performances,” says Kathy Hotchner, director of the Scottsdale Center for the Arts, who says her mission when she curates a season is to bring pieces to the Valley that are touring the world, that aren’t made here, and that you can’t normally see here. Her programming runs the gamut — from classical music and dance to theater and jazz.

“The Beijing Modern Dance Company actually is the most exciting thing we’re doing,” says Hotchner, who saw the group perform “Rear Light” in China. The piece is contemporary, a modern dance work set to Pink Floyd’s rock opus “The Wall.”

“It’s a beautiful dance,” Hotchner says. “They’re fabulous. And I think it’s very special.”

Another of the Scottsdale venue’s off-beat February dance offerings is Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, an all-male ballet group that parodies classical ballets, including Swan Lake, The Dying Swan and Paquita.

In March, the acrobatic company Momix will present “Baseball,” a piece that was originally commissioned in 1994 when Scottsdale Stadium opened. Since then, Hotchner says, the timeless piece has traveled the world.

But “Baseball,” which starts with a prehistoric man throwing a ball and turns into a mythic, visual fantasy about America's Pastime, is not for kids. “There’s a few moments of topless in it,” Hotchner says. “It’s an adult piece. It's a beautiful piece. It's subtle and funny and beautiful. ”

Also in March, Scottsdale Center will serve up Korea’s longest-running hit, “Cookin’.” The show, which is billed as “part food fight and part percussion festival with razor sharp knives ...” is Stomp-meets-Benihana.

It “has also been called Benihana Goes Berserk and Stomp meets Jackie Chan meets I Love Lucy,” Hotchner says. “It’s a story about these chefs who have to create a wedding dinner in an hour ... and it has a little audience participation.”

The Chandler Center for the Arts is offering quirky family fare along with this season’s usual lineup of pops concerts, ballet and diverse musical acts. The Peking Acrobats return January 22 to Chandler Center for the Arts. The elite Chinese troupe of acrobats, jugglers, cyclists and tumblers perform moves that have been around since the Ch’in Dynasty (225-227 B.C.) set to exotic music by a Chinese Orchestra.

A week later, the center will follow up with “Comedy and Pet Theater,” with Moscow Circus performer Gregory Popovich, who dresses in clown gear performs with his pets — cats and dogs that he rescued from animal shelters. And in April, the Girls Choir of Harlem — a chorus of 45 girls under the direction of former Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Lorna Myers — will sing a mixture of songs and arias.