Those who arrive early to Thursday’s University Dance Company concert are in for a rare treat.

To reconstruct the intimacy of baroque dances as they would have been performed during the period, a pair will stage selections from a baroque suite in the balcony and lower lobby of the Lied Center.

âÂÂThey want people to see the dances close up, as they would have been seen in the baroque period,â said KU dance professor Joan Stone, who reconstructed the dances from notated scores by dancing masters of BachâÂÂs time. âÂÂIn the baroque period, it would have been done in a very small salon or a very small theater. They really were very intimate performances.âÂÂ

During the program, âÂÂFashionable Dances of 1700â will be performed on the raised orchestra pit in an attempt to bring the dancers closer to the audience.

The other offerings in the fall dance program donâÂÂt face nearly the risk of being swallowed in the vastness of the Lied Center. The company will dance excerpts from legendary modern dancer Josà © Limà ³nâÂÂs masterpiece, âÂÂChoreographic Offering.â Guest artist Sarah Stackhouse, a principal dancer with the Limà ³n Company for years and now a major figure in keeping his works alive, staged the excerpts for 22 members of the university company during a two-week residency in September.

Stone said acclimating to the shapes and sense of weight in the Limà ³n piece had been a challenge for students.

âÂÂThe sense of weight in modern dance has become much lighter since the pioneering days,â she said. âÂÂIn the days of Limà ³n, people were not trained in ballet and jazz; they were really trained primarily in modern. They had a sense of weight, which is what I see as different and difficult for our students. But the shapes are also unusual.âÂÂ

The choreography of other KU dance faculty will be showcased at the concert as well. Jerel HildingâÂÂs âÂÂChampagne Polkaâ is a dance for seven women and three men to music by Hans Christian Lumbye. Hilding also choreographed a romantic pas de deux to Sergei RachmaninovâÂÂs âÂÂDaisiesâ and âÂÂDreams.âÂÂ

In âÂÂKinetic Calligraphyâ by Patrick Suzeau, the dancers are propelled by the music of contemporary composer Chichun Chi-Sun Lee, who lived in Lawrence until recently. Muriel CohanâÂÂs âÂÂAccents,â set to Alberto GinasteraâÂÂs âÂÂSonata No. 1,â is billed as a highly energetic and rhythmically driving work.

Willie Lenoir created âÂÂRitmas de Danzas,â a choreographic romp to the Latin rhythms of âÂÂLas Verduras,â performed by the guitar duo of Strunz and Farah.

StoneâÂÂs baroque suite will be set to BachâÂÂs âÂÂFrench Suite No. 5,â played by Marie Rubis Bauer on the harpsichord.

The steps in baroque dance are very small and delicate, Stone said, and it takes some time to get accustomed to looking at them.

âÂÂI had one dancer who used to say to me, âÂÂ’Joan, every time I do these dances, I feel like the couple on top of the wedding cake,âÂÂâ Stone said. âÂÂBut theyâÂÂre quite wonderful in their own way and expressive in their own way. You just have to adjust your sites to the baroque scale.âÂÂ