They say the city never sleeps, and Wally Cardona’s ultra-urban “Flat” allowed no rest for the weary Thursday evening at the University Dance Company’s spring concert.

The guest choreographer, whose own Wally Cardona Quartet is active in New York, transported the incessant sound and constant motion of his metro home to the Lied Center stage with an electronic score that emulated distant jackhammers, lurching subways, groaning machinery and white noise. Seven dancers navigated a cityscape created with large rolling panels – black on one side, mirrored on the other.

Like disconnected pedestrians, they walked swiftly, turned corners and reflected the energy of their urban surroundings. When finally exposed midway through the 12-minute work, the mirrors amplified the intensity, multiplying light and bodies in an exhilarating segment that felt just like rush hour.

In the end, Royce Matthews became the architect, pushing the city walls ever closer to the remaining dancers, who escaped through alleyways between the looming structures.

Then it was off to a foreign land for “El Dia de los Muertos,” an expansive piece choreographed by Kansas University faculty members Muriel Cohan and Patrick Suzeau in honor of the annual commemoration of the dead in Latin-American communities. The prodigious work – set to an original score by frequent KU collaborator Gabriella Lena Frank and performed live by the KU Wind Ensemble – re-enacted the holiday’s time-honored components in 10 sections, outlined by Cohan prior to the performance.

Suzeau and 21 student dancers chased away evil spirits with frenetic movements backed by startling percussion, mourned lost loved ones, paid homage to village folk dances and invoked the humor often present amid the somberness of Day of the Dead observances. In a particularly amusing segment, Suzeau, as the trickster/death figure, repeatedly frightened the gathered villagers, then used his cloak to control their movements like a puppeteer with his marionettes.

Meggi Sweeney capped the work with a stunning mourning solo, and the Wind Ensemble, especially its percussion section, exhibited impressive endurance and skill throughout Frank’s difficult composition.

Also on the program were works by three other KU faculty members. Willie Lenoir’s pulsating “Running Toward Iskander” opened the evening. Small groups of women dressed in smoky blue tunics and loose pants followed swirling arm movements with their entire bodies, flowing with the driving rhythms of tribal drums and electric guitar, and ultimately sprinting and leaping across the stage in a frantic dash toward some unknown destination.

Women added their voices to the ancient tradition of Jewish chant in Joan Stone’s “For Our Silent Mothers.” Over a score of three Hebrew chants, uncharacteristically sung by a female, five women gestured delicately in the first section; extended the lines of their questioning bodies with sashes, creating soft textures in the second; and ended with a vibrant folk dance as the music climaxed.

More lighthearted was Jerel Hilding’s ballet, “…between…” Felix Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No. 10 in B Minor served as a backdrop for a literal interpretation of the dance’s title. Ballerinas alone and in groups wove between formations of other dancers, shifting moods as the music fluctuated between adagio, allegro and presto.

The utterly diverse concert repeats at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. today.