There were lots of ways Thursday to appreciate the dancers of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: upright or up against a wall, prone on their stomachs or supine underneath the floor. They looked glorious in all the above positions, and lots more, as the company opened the 1st of 3 University Musical Society performances at Power Center for the Performing Arts.

On the bill for the versatile Chicagoans, directed by Glenn Edgerton, were 3 works, all new to Ann Arbor, 2 of which — Jirí Kylián’s “27’ 52”” and Johann Inger’s “Walking Mad” — repeat both tonight and Saturday.

Like much of Hubbard Street’s repertoire, the Kylián and Inger works come to the company from the Nederlands Dans Theater, but each is very much its own creature despite the common provenance.

Kylián’s “27’ 52”” is as dark in its half-hour of stage time as “Walking Mad” is light. You (almost) need the long intermission between the 2 works — practically 27’52” itself — to recalibrate the mood meter, especially with Ohad Naharin’s equally dark and stirring “Tabula Rasa” as the opening.

Dislocation seems to be the name of the game in “27’ 52.””The dancers are liquid curves and flow 1 moment, quivering taut lines the next. The white Marley dance floor shifts under their feet. Like the proverbial rug, it is pulled out from under them, pulled up into a mound, or raised to cover them like a shroud. Panels of it fly down from above, obscuring the dancers’ heads and leaving only flailing limbs visible; finally, whole sections crash to the floor — the sky falling, just as Chicken Little told us it would someday.

With a sound score by Dirk Haubrich that includes spoken text in a Babel of languages (contributed by the original dancers) and ominous rippings and roarings, “27’ 52”” can feel a little pretentious — a little obscure and too serious about being deep. But the intensity of the dancing by the 3 couples in Thursday’s cast — Ana Lopez and Alejandro Cerrudo; Penny Saunders and Kevin Shannon; and Meredith Dincolo and Benjamin Wardell — is real and makes an indelible impression.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago performing Jirí Kylián’s “27’ 52””:

So does the deadpan virtuosity of the dancing in Inger’s “Walking Mad,” which on Thursday featured Kellie Epperheimer, Dincolo and Robyn Mineko Williams as well as 6 of the company men.

The dance, set to Ravel’s “Bolero,” indulges in now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t sleight of hand. A wall, pierced with invisible doors, capable of folding from straight line to a Vee and tipping from vertical to horizontal, allows the dancers to play peek-a-boo with each other and with the audience. The dancers bounce off of it, bound over it and sneak around it with a zany insouciance that courts vaudeville as well as popular dance forms, all while Ravel repeats himself in the background or foreground. It’s all great fun.

Ohad Naharin’s “Tabula Rasa,” which opened Thursday’s program, uses its string score, by Arvo Pärt, without irony, as a backdrop for a 2-act dance that moves from swirling intensity to linear minimalism with stunning effect and for stunning affect. It won’t be seen again on Hubbard Street’s remaining programs, but audiences have a chance to admire replacements by HSDC’s Terence Marling (“At’em”) tonight, and by Jorma Elo (“Bitter Suite”) on Saturday. Since all programs feature those amazing Hubbard Street dancers, you can’t go wrong.

Susan Isaacs Nisbett is a free-lance writer who covers classical music and dance for AnnArbor.com.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago performing Ohad Naharin’s “Tabula Rasa”: