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Over the next two weekends, Salt Lake's oldest and most established modern-dance companies will break with tradition.

Repertory Dance Theatre and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company have explored collaborations, retrospectives, multimedia and interdisciplinary work in grand and intimates spaces. But until now, the format of an evening-length work has seldom been used.

For those unfamiliar with modern-dance parlance, an evening-length is a work created by a single choreographer, usually between 50 and 90 minutes (no intermission), with a self-contained thematic arc often incorporating the theatrical elements of music and sets to address a significant aspect of the human experience.

First up is RDT's performance of Zvi Gotheiner's "Dabke" on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Gotheiner created the 50-minute work for his New York-based company as he reflected on his hopes for peace after the 2010 "Arab Spring." Salt Lake City audiences were treated to a peek of "Dabke" when RDT performed a section in its fall 2015 program.

RDT artistic director Linda C. Smith said when curating any performance, it needs a reason to hang together and can be done in a number of ways: "Sometimes it's a theme in the form of an overriding concept and other times its a balance of the work itself."

For its "Spring Season" program April 13-15, Ririe-Woodbury commissioned choreographer Ann Carlson, a 2016 Doris Duke award recipient with local ties that began at the University of Utah. Her 75-minute evening-length work, "Elizabeth, the dance," is a poignant journey of the heart and mind anchored in Carlson's remarkable sense of humor and honest point of view.

RW artistic director Daniel Charon said an "evening-length work is attractive because it is transporting in the way that you can really enter the world of one person's mind or work and take that journey in an evening, so in a way it is an immersion into the artist and the work itself."

Both works are not evening-lengths in the ballet tradition of a linear story.

Gotheiner and Carlson offer narrative twists and turns as they reach into their pasts to comment on the present.

"When I saw 'Dabke,' it resonated with contemporary issues in a way both generally and specifically — in terms of culture, territory and human relationships — and I thought, 'Here is a work that can resonate with audiences with vastly different points of view,' " Smith said.

Dabke is a celebratory folk dance from the Middle East. Gotheiner, who has lived, danced and choreographed in New York since 1988, grew up on a kibbutz. His evening-length work weaves a captivating emotional story through the rhythms and patterns of his youth.

"Zvi wanted to embrace this dance to reflect on what we have in common," Smith said. "People have always built walls and fought over borders, but here is an opportunity to use the arts through a community dance to find ways to breathe together and show our hearts and souls."

For Carlson, her piece — originally titled "Two Elizabeths" — pays homage to dance revolutionaries and pioneers, including Joan Woodbury, but specifically Elizabeth "Betty" Hayes, the U.'s second chair of modern dance, and Elizabeth Streb, founder of STREB, a form fusing dance, sports, gymnastics and circus. Carlson said the Elizabeths influenced her in almost opposite ways.

"Memories of Betty brought my 17-year-old self into the room, so the work is very personal, and in contrast Streb's fearless 'Pop Action' movement and encouragement of my current work is an inspiration to me," Carlson said.

Charon describes Carlson as an investigative choreographer who includes the dancers in her research. She invited respected Salt Lake architect Prescott Muir to talk about designing the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, and other artists pertinent to the process.

"This work is episodic in nature, which really helps sustain it over 75 minutes," Charon said. "It goes from something very energetic with props and exhilarating movement, and then shifts to something quiet with language and poignant music. It is very theatrical, but at its crux is a dance work."

Carlson said throughout the dance, there are references rooted in dance history and from the lives of the dancers being honored. But Carlson said, in her light-hearted way, "as much as we're trying to honor all of those things, if you don't relate to that, there'll be plenty of giant walls falling over, Beatles music, and people moving around all over onstage." —

Repertory Dance Theater's "Dabke"

When • April 6-8, 7:30 p.m.

Where • Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. Broadway, Salt Lake City

Tickets • $15-$30, $5 more day of show; Art Tix outlets and artsaltlake.org

Run time • One​ hour, no intermission

More information • https://artsaltlake.org/production/dabke/

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company's "Spring Season"

When • April 13-15, 7:30 p.m.; with 2 p.m. matinee April 15

Where • Leona Wagner Black Box at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. Broadway, Salt Lake City

Tickets • $15-$35, prices increases $5 day of show; Art Tix outlets and artsaltlake.org

Run time • 75 minutes, no intermission

More information • https://artsaltlake.org/production/spring-season-3/