The phrase "a drop of water" caught her eye while perusing poetry in a Chicago bookstore. "It refers to something ordinary yet essential," she says. The clear and basic quality of water informed Walkey's curatorial choices. You won't need any mental filter to drink in the movements of the performers. This is choreography in which raising an arm means, well, raising an arm. The selected duets all share this direct simplicity, but that doesn't mean they are simpleminded. "Each duet is made up of familiar, often simple expressions [with] careful development of repetition, pattern, rhythm and variation," Walkey says. "These artists have persisted in an investigation of subtle and detailed work."

Both Sitting Duet (March 4–6) and dreamcracker (March 11–13) are collaborations in which the musician plays a performing role in the work right alongside the dancer. Both Sitting Duet is like two conductors without an orchestra. British choreographer Jonathan Burrows and Italian composer Matteo Fargion sit side by side in chairs, reading a musical score they created and interpreting it with gestures from delicate to emphatic. In the semi-improvisational dreamcracker, laptop musician Boris Hauf and his electronic sounds share the stage with Austrian dancer Sabina Holzer. Hauf and Holzer wear matching outfits in this piece inspired by the slippery, erotic feminist writings of tattoo and bodybuilding maven Kathy Acker.

The thumping techno of Detroit's DJ Assault creates a vibrating environment for Anne Juren from Austria and Alice Chauchat from France in their high-powered duet J'Aime (March 18–20). These accomplished dancers apply their rigorous, disciplined dance-as-art chops to the kind of exuberant bouncing around that goes on in your typical nightclub. The result is joyful, precision choreography that gives the word smartass a new meaning. The dancers' movement quips on the sexual and visual politics of the dance floor.

The final weekend of the series (March 25–27) promises to deliver humor of a more poignant sort. Aptly titled, Frans Poelstra, his dramaturg, and Bach features a couple of guys from the Netherlands who have been making dance and performance work for years. Poelstra plays himself as an aging choreographer trying to grapple with the gravity and gravitas of Bach. His dramaturg, Steijn (also playing himself), tries to help him with the inevitable cliché of choreographing a work to the Goldberg Variations.

Unlike your typical Swan Lake experience, "A Drop of Water" offers a chance to see the artists who are the creative force behind the work. There's no choreographer or director behind the scenes; the artists give their own authentic and original version. And, given the dimensions of Links Hall, you're never more than a few yards away from the performers.

A Drop of Water starts Friday 4 at Links Hall.