Every year I get relatively excited about one of the two weekends of Momentum: New Dance Works series, presented by the Walker Art Center and Southern Theater. Invariably, it’s the other weekend that ends up more intriguing. But old habits die hard. So here we go again, and by next weekend I’ll know if that adage still holds true.

The series showcases four emerging dance artists (two each weekend), whom we often know from other people’s work. Such is the case of Sachiko Nishiuchi, who performs two percussive but significantly different dance styles with Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre and Ananya Dance Theater. After watching her dance flamenco for many years, it took a while to recognize her in ADT’s work, based on the Indian classical dance style of Odissi. 

This week Nishiuchi will premiere “The Apple Tree,” a dance-theater work based on John Galsworthy’s 1916 romance novel. The work will utilize flamenco as its primarily stylistic vehicle, but Nishiuchi has also studied ballet and butoh, so a sense of classicism and stillness may pervade the work.

Conversely, Vanessa Voskuil performs with the movement-theater group she co-founded, Live Action Set. She has also created and performed her own work, in which she merges film, costuming, movement, live animals and everyday props in a surrealistic, sometimes romantic look at female characters in a dreamlike state.

Voskuil will premiere "en masse," aided by a cast of 80. (Will anyone be left in the audience?) I’m hoping for her trademark intelligence and interdisciplinary creativity within this welter of humanity, as well as a clear through line that communicates something about the human experience.

"Momentum: New Dance Works." 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave., Minneapolis; Tickets are $20, $16 for Southern and Walker members. 612-340-1725.

Next week's Momentum lineup: Sally Rousse and Megan Mayer, July 23-25.