Wally Cardona is definitely shifting the playing field for his latest work, Really Real, and those who go armed with expectations based on other recent works of his may be in for some surprises. This thoughtful, investigative choreographer’s last few pieces filled the stage with numerous objects with which his dancers interacted. These were far more than mere set pieces. His last work to be presented by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which has commissioned Really Real, incorporated 300 black columns. And in his acclaimed Site, seen at DTW in 2007, the dancers maneuvered 18 large pieces of fiberboard. But this time around, the dancers have the stage to themselves, and Cardona is confronting the possibilities of open space, perspective and distance with the invaluable aid of longtime lighting designer Roderick Murray’s contributions. The work features a score by Phil Kline, performed a cappella by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

During a recent phone interview, Cardona addressed the challenges of confronting an object-free stage. “It was both frightening and exhilarating,” he said with a laugh. “I’m excited about really putting it into human hands. There was something about working with objects—my attention was split. I had to deal with the people as well as the objects. Here all I’m looking at is people to people. What was kind of an ongoing theme was that dancers, in their training, can very easily become like an object. They can get very fixed, through the ability to deal with repetition. A lot of the work that we were dealing with was, ‘yes, that’s a usable device but is not the end that we’re looking for.’ It’s just the beginning. How you use that ability to then have an actual multi-level, complex, dynamic relationship between one another on stage. So it doesn’t become a fixed thing.”

His most recent New York performance, A Light Conversation, a year ago, gave a hint of the directions he has headed with this piece. An extended collaborative duet he performed with Swiss choreographer, it was riveting in its intricacy and apparent simplicity. It was set to a radio discussion about Kierkegaard, and that Danish philosopher also figures prominently in Really Real. His ideas and observations inform the choreography, and text that accompanies certain sections of the piece incorporates his biographical facts as well as philosophical arguments. “He crossed my path and I just responded,” Cardona explained. “I get very excited by things that seem to be able to really articulate and express something that I experienced in my life. Before this, I had never, at an earlier time, really studied him. He railed against conformism. He absolutely was against the individual losing himself to society. He wrote, ‘It’s not about what decisions you make, but how you live with those decisions.’ I think about that one all the time. The making of one decision leads to—not only the ramifications of that one, but then the next decision.”

The incorporation of text marks another notable shift for Cardona, one that began with A Light Conversation. “One of the things I knew from the start of working on Really Real, that I discussed with Phil [Kline] was the use of voice, and using words with those voices. For me, that was something radically new. I had actively resisted that for years with my work. If any composer I worked with slipped in a recorded voice, I said no. Then, heading into that duet, I really made a conscious choice: Rather than run away from words now, I need to actually go straight to them, surround myself with them deal with them. So that was the beginning of trying to come to terms with them—and then having a great time with them, and realizing how much potential they have, how I can use them to work off of.”

The six dancers (Cardona himself also performs in one section) are evenly divided between Cardona veterans and those with whom he is working for the first time. At times during the piece, the cast is augmented by a much larger contingent, consisting of local people. This is also new for Cardona, who has worked primarily with a small ensemble. “I’m excited about questioning the idea of spectacle—or, for lack of better term, whatever private expectations that can be created—in both a theater and a venue such as the Harvey. I think people build relationships with spaces, and many people will have a certain kind of expectation of that stage. This was also part of my challenge for myself. It’s great to deal with the vastness of that space, but I wanted to find something that cold also be a very intimate experience for the people watching. That was something I really wanted to confront.”

Really Real

Nov. 17, 19-21, BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St. (at Rockwell Pl.), Brooklyn, 718-636-4100 or www.bam.org; 7:30, $20-$40.