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The first weekend of Peridance Contemporary Dance Company’s recent all-too-short two-weekend Spring Season (March 11-12, 18-19) featured the world premiere of “Dia-Mono-Logues,” which took two years to create, said choreographer Igal Perry, the company’s founder and artistic director. (The first movement, for six dancers, premiered last March at the same venue.) The full-length 70-minute work for eight dancers juxtaposes the relationship between our internal monologues, which project our subconscious prejudices and preconceived ideas onto our external social interactions. It originated from Perry’s own experience as an emigrant from Israel in the 1970s and his struggle to establish himself as a New York City artist.

This gorgeous work is a collaboration with acclaimed Israeli composer-poet-singer-songwriter-pianist Ofer Bashan, who wrote the lush, layered score and supplied the introductory poem and finale song. It was conceived out of his and Perry’s shared heritage and experience in navigating cultural shifts and identity with a view towards bridging cultural differences. Sections of the work were accompanied by a virtuoso string quartet from New Asia Chamber Music Society, led by award-winning cellist Nan-Cheng Che, with two violinists and a viola player. The costumes by Stephen Smith were cleverly effective—simple beige tight shorts or briefs, to which various color shirts were added to set each section apart.

The piece opens with an audio recording of a poem recited by Bashan in Hebrew. The supertitles on the back wall were translated into English by Perry. “I am a sad hedgehog,” it begins. In an email, Bashan explained that a hedgehog’s loneliness is almost biological, “as his thorns will scratch anyone who will try to caress him, to touch him,” he said. “This is also a metaphor for all the unnoticed people around us.”

In another email, Perry added that the hedgehog expresses a certain human behavior, “closing in when attacked but self protecting with aggressive behavior,” he explained. “The hedgehog is sad, though, because it feels like this kind of behavior is forced upon him (by others, by society?). The hedgehog also talks about its loneliness and inability to love—a very prominent trend in our society!”

The dance is composed of what Perry terms “episodes,” which “make us look through different prisms onto human behavior and the complexities of communication,” he said.

The eleven episodes of varying lengths are fashioned for intricate, intimate duets (including brief male and female nudity), dramatic ensemble work and riveting solos, performed by the gifted dancers, who traverse the classical, contemporary, lyrical and hard-driving. Perry’s masterful choreography and Bashan’s music are a perfect union.

For the finale, the screen projected individual words in short bursts: soul, heart, heaven, hell, woman, short, tall, freedom, forgive. They were extracted from Bashan’s song about unity and cooperation, sung in strong, resolute voices by the dance ensemble, joined by members of the Peridance Certificate Program.

Perry toyed with us about a possible third part to the piece. That would be amazing.

For more information about the Peridance Contemporary Dance Company or the dance programs offered at the Peridance Capezio Center, go to www.peridance.com or call (646) 798-8140.

Peridance in "Dia-Mono-Logues" choreographed by Igal Perry.

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