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Associate director Robert Cleary rehearses "After the Fall" with other members of Kanopy Dance Company. - Kris Ugarriza

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Intense, rhythmic music fills the sunlit studio, pushing and pulling the dancers around the floor. They fight, attack and flee from each other, some holding their hands to their heads as if the music was hurting their ears.

The sound comes abruptly to a halt, and Kanopy Dance Company artistic director Lisa Thurrell, who is sitting on the floor of the studio petting the company's canine mascot, Ozero, rattles off a list of detailed notes for the performers. Watch those noodly arms. Stay focused. And, "start to have an articulation of energy in the space. When there's too much randomness, we don't see it."

She laughs.

"And you wonder what we have left to do in the next two weeks."

"After the Fall" will be performed Oct. 3-5 at Promenade Hall in the Overture Center. It's an ambitious performance, the product of seven different choreographers and 17 dancers, and includes members of KDC as well as the youth company, Kanopy Company 2.

Thurrell described "After the Fall" as the third iteration of a dance "opera" originally produced by Kanopy as a short piece in 2000 at Old Music Hall.

"It wasn't quite telling the tale yet," Thurrell said. So Kanopy choreographers added to it, once in 2005, and again this year.

The narrative is still loosely defined, but the piece follows a protagonist, Mohawk Man, who enters a surreal alternate world controlled by a "Nosferatu"-type puppet master and populated by China dolls, a Greek chorus, and eerie creatures called shrouds. The shrouds' menacing steps and angular movements recall the predatory Skeksis of the Jim Henson-produced fantasy film "The Dark Crystal."

Yet the feel of the piece is probably closer to David Bowie's star turn in "Labyrinth," another 1980s Jim Henson movie with somewhat darker themes. Punctuated by bright neon costumes and Martha Graham-style modern dancing, the "opera" physicalizes an inevitable descent into madness. If that sounds a little cliched, that's intentional.

"It's like a bad 'Wizard of Oz,' a bad graphic novel," Thurrell said. "It's almost like a rock video gone awry. It's all about cliche, this show -- all about cliche."

Thurrell's husband and Kanopy associate director Robert Cleary is the original choreographer for "After the Fall," which began as a solo piece. He plays the devilish puppet master in the show.

Both acts are set to music by Apocalyptica, a group of four Finnish cellists who play string versions of Metallica songs. Apocalyptica played in Madison at the Barrymore Theatre on Sept. 15.

Kanopy Dance, founded in 1976 (the name refers to "an umbrella, sheltering the artists from the storm," Cleary said with a smirk), is a repertory company, a school and a studio space for many other performing groups.

Thurrell and Cleary seek out collaborations as well as accepting other artists' invitations to work together.

"As an artist, I need to choreograph, I need to express myself." Thurrell said. "But I also know that other people need to express themselves, too. A lot can be said for mixing it up."

"We hope to bring in even more guest artists, though times are a little tight right now," she said. As a resident Overture company, Thurrell said they're not overly concerned about the center's recent financial woes.

"This was not a shock to anybody," Cleary said. "It's time to move forward. For us, we're the small modern dance company "

"We're used to working on a shoestring," Thurrell finished for him.

IF YOU GO

Kanopy Dance presents "After the Fall: A Dance Opera in Two Acts" at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3; 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5, in Promenade Hall at the Overture Center, 201 State St. Tickets cost $24 general admission and $22 for students. More information can be found at www.kanopydance.org or by calling 608-258-4141.