Sarah Michelson

It isn’t every choreographer who gets her broken foot and financial troubles discussed in The New York Times, but Michelson had that dubious honor this year: An injury postponed the debut of Daylight, the work she’s bringing here, as well as increased her debt with her landlord. The cheerful part is that the work itself is more than worth the fuss. Michelson has a penchant for arranging things—building odd environments for performers and audience, painstakingly setting movement so that it seems wild and improvised, then thwarting expectations of what the actual performance is. On the Boards, 100 W. Roy St., 206-217-9888, www.ontheboards.org. $22. 8 p.m. Wed. Oct. 5-Sun. Oct. 9. SANDRA KURTZ

Dynamic Accord

“Micropolyphony” is composer Gyorgy Ligeti’s term for his method of interweaving tiny sounds into vast textures; his choral work Lux aeterna, used as eerie “monolith music” in 2001: A Space Odyssey, is a familiar example. In subsequent works, Ligeti has explored the common ground between this technique and American minimalism, an influence avowed in the puckish title of his Self-portrait with Reich and Riley (with Chopin in the background). Gust Burns and Julie Ives (pictured), two of Seattle’s most fearless pianists, will play it alongside music by local composers: Tom Swafford’s Grand Staircase to Nowhere; Sarah Bassingthwaighte’s MMMMM; Tara Flandreau’s Insurrection and Conundrum; and an untitled piece by Adam Diller. Combining improvisation and composition, these four works—commissions all—should play to the duo’s particular strengths. Seattle Art Museum, 100 University St., 206-985-7003 or www.washingtoncomposers.org. $10-$15. 7 p.m. Sun. Oct. 9. GAVIN BORCHERT