Photograph: Steve Vacariello

In early February, Susan Marshall’s skillful choreography was on view at the Dance Center of Columbia College when her company performed the kinetic, theatrical and surreal work Cloudless. On Thursday 29 you’ll get a chance to see how Marshall applies her talent for creating poetic meaning and metaphor out of action—using musicians instead of dancers—when the internationally known, Chicago-based musical sextet eighth blackbird performs at the Harris Theater.

Marshall is a primary collaborator in singing in the dead of night, which is the second half of The Only Moving Thing, a two-part program that opens with Steve Reich’s Double Sextet. Although Marshall worked extensively with the members of blackbird on their stage movements, she’s billed as “stage director” rather than “choreographer” in all the advance materials, as well as the program. This also reflects the subtlety of Marshall’s input: You won’t see the violinist doing high kicks. “We didn’t want to give the impression we were going to be dancing around,” says Lisa Kaplan, blackbird’s pianist.

singing in the dead of night is a suite of five pieces by three composers: Pulitzer winner David Lang and his Bang on a Can compatriots, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe. When the three met to discuss the collaboration, they immediately thought of eighth blackbird and its lively performance style. It was Lang who suggested that Marshall join the project (they’ve collaborated before). Each of the composers wrote their sections with room for Marshall’s input.

“Lang’s score includes an instruction saying, ‘Randomly drop metal objects all over the stage,’_” Kaplan says. “He knew that [Marshall] would know what to do with that.” Marshall turned it into an emotionally-laden action: As the musician holds an armful of strikers, pipes, cans and chopsticks and begins to drop them, the effect is comic at first, then becomes tragic and poignant.

Photograph: Luke Ratray

Marshall says Wolfe’s section of night has the “most extreme” use of movement: “Julia [Wolfe] wanted the sound of sand, and she had this idea of a couple slow-dancing on amplified sandpaper.” However, that turned out to be technically problematic, so Marshall tried other ways to create the same white-noise effect. In Marshall’s interpretation, Kaplan and Duvall move sand around on an amplified table. “We use our whole bodies—arms, hands and torsos,” Kaplan says.

Marshall’s skills, although honed in dance studios, are perfectly matched with the abilities and interests of the blackbirds: Kaplan, Tim Munro (flute), Michael J. Maccaferri (clarinet), Matt Albert (violin and viola), Nicholas Photinos (cello) and Matthew Duvall (percussion). The ensemble is already known for its highly physical performances. The way Kaplan tells it, the group was rehearsing one day when she wondered why they were all just sitting there when they could be standing up or moving around to visually highlight the music.

What might seem like a daunting hurdle for a choreographer—a musician has to hold his or her instrument and play it properly—was a welcome challenge for Marshall. “I often create by imposing a limitation,” Marshall says. “I work in a way that is very task-oriented.” Marshall found that discussions of the movement could be just as detailed as those in a typical dance rehearsal. “There was a question at one point of whether to rest the head on the temple or the place between the temple and the ear,” she remembers.

The group embraced Marshall’s approach. “Susan calls choreography ‘chore-eography,’_” Kaplan says. “She has us focus on doing specific actions. She didn’t try to make us what we’re not: We’re musicians.”

eighth blackbird moves into the Harris Theater on Thursday, May 29.