Spoiler alert: This year’s concert by the University of Hawaii’s Department of Theatre and Dance starts off so slyly that some in the audience might not realize the show has begun.

The lighting stays dim as casually clad student types sit at a long table and hunker over books. The awkward silence continues. Ho-hum. Then the students start to "hit the books" — literally. Within moments they’ve created a magnetic sound-groove so compelling that everyone busts a move, including two stern librarians who morph into a hip-hop-esque shuffle.

The six subsequent pieces turn up the heat of move-busting iconoclasm by giving roles to slam poets as well as daring scenic designers and sound­scape artists. Thus, "Dancing off the Page," as the concert is called, delivers on its name.

Intertwining with so many different sensory elements, the dancers pre­sent ineffable stories that resist being parsed into prose, logic and even conventional plot. To give this feat a bit of context, there’s no shortage of controversy over how to sustain the modernity of modern dance.

Overall, "Dancing off the Page" homes in on the provocative subject of human yearning for harmonious relationships in the 21st century. In a piece called "Father," for example, poetry performer Matthew Kelty wrangles in grief over the death of Trayvon Martin and other victims of racially tinged gun violence. The accompanying choreography by Peggy Gaither Adams is danced by Tomomi Jane Hara, who leavens the agonizing mood with deeply felt fluidity in her movement suggesting an underlying fluidity of spirit and hope for change.

In "Absent Space Present," dancers flesh out the carnival-like world of guest poet Samuel Skeist, who delves into stories of intimacy with wild and zany images; in one story he juxtaposes lovemaking with the work of theoretical physicist Stephen Haw­king. Sami Akuna and UH dance faculty member Kara Miller tapped nearly 30 student dancers in collaborating on suitably imaginative choreography. The result is an exuberant multiplicity of scenes, where dancers are seen making and breaking visceral bonds with one another in a kaleidoscope of movement that is as explosively athletic as it is emotionally moving. It looks so spontaneous, but the fact of the matter is that such esprit de corps takes work and more work.

In fact, it takes transformative work to go through bone-wearying rehearsals and emerge with your joy of dance intact. The last piece of "Dancing off the Page" must have come as an ultimate challenge in this respect. It is called "The Rambler," and it was set on the UH dancers just last month by visiting San Francisco artist Joe Goode, world-renowned for pushing the boundaries of dance theater.

See for yourself if these student dancers didn’t turn Goode’s iconic legend into a haunting dreamscape conveyed with feeling that deserves an "A" for authenticity.