TraumNovela is not quite like anything Dallas has ever seen before.

This cooperative project by New York's Six Figures Theatre Co. and Deep Ellum's SATER at the Dallas Hub Theater is a musical theater piece, but don't expect Oklahoma! Conceived by choreographer Juan Borona, TraumNovela is based on the Arthur Schnitzler play that also inspired Stanley Kubrick's film Eyes Wide Shut.

The story's skeleton is the same: A husband and wife admit to each other their attractions to other people, then go to a strange party where all kinds of perverse things happen. But the atmosphere is utterly different. Instead of the movie's frigid objectivity, TraumNovela takes place in a dreamlike hothouse crawling with phantasmagorical images.

With his co-creators, composer-lyricist Bettina Sheppard and director Cris Buchner, Mr. Borona has done workshop versions of individual numbers in New York. But this Dallas production, reviewed Thursday, is the team's first time to see the entire work. They're hoping to see what changes they want to make before the New York version scheduled for the fall.

Mr. Borona's ballet background leaves its mark on the structure. The piece is divided into discrete musical numbers – some of which don't have an immediately obvious relationship to the main plot. Overall, this new work feels more like European dance theater than anything seen on Broadway.

Glenn Franklin and Shelly Ley's initial dialogue as the married couple provokes a certain anxiety; we soon discover, though, that they were chosen for strong singing voices and an ability to get through the complex movements. Ms. Sheppard's music doesn't fulfill the usual expectations, either, but some of it is bizarrely haunting.

Once the married pair gets to the party, vamps and near-vampires crop up everywhere. Joi Jackson stands out for a hot song in the first act and an even hotter apache dance in the second. Sarah Caterisano presides over this dream world as an apparition in a long black skirt; she periodically breaks into sweeping dance movements.

Even more impressive in sheer dance terms is Jason Garcia Ignacio, who has been involved with TraumNovela during all its years of development. He's a barely clad sprite of malevolent aspect, with the muscular torso and legs of a trained dancer. Just why he lures the husband in a homoerotic twist to the plot late in the show isn't clear – previously the husband has been threatening to sleep with all the women to revenge his wife's perceived infidelity. But this switch helps TraumNovela to explore many forms of dance partnering.

Most impressively, TraumNovela shows off a sense of stagecraft quite new to the Hub stage. Using whole volcanoes' worth of stage smoke, a minimum of lighting instruments and a whole lot of red silk, the production looks like a million dollars.

•Through June 23 at the Dallas Hub Theater, 2809 Canton St. Runs 75 mins. $15 to $20, discounts. 214-749-7010, www.shane-arts.com.