In the early 1990s I had the dreaded job of curtain puller at the Houston Dance Coalition's annual choreography competition, which meant I needed to watch hours of shapeless choreography that could put even a serious dance lover into a coma. That was until Jennifer Wood's strange moves caught my eye. It was a simple duet, nicely structured and well crafted, and contained a fresh take on dance vocabulary. I remember saying to my fellow backstage helpers, "Keep your eye on that girl."

Houston took my advice. Although Wood did not win the competition, shortly afterward she founded Suchu Dance, which has grown to be a influential Houston dance organization. Wood is hands down Houston's most prolific choreographer. Her work has traversed the highly theatrical to more streamlined pure movement explorations. Her newest opus, The Formers, is yet another adventure in movement making. Don't make a big deal about the title, it's often nonsensical.

"My titles never mean anything," Wood said. "It's just that pieces need titles."

In The Formers, opening Thursday at Barnevelder Theater, Wood challenged her usual creative habits. "Usually my work is close to the body. This piece has much more distal initiation, which takes up a lot of space and it's very tiring," said the choreographer, as she gazed at an exhausted group of dancers who had just run the first half of her new 90-minute work. "I also worked with static shapes as a beginning of a phrase, which is completely new to me."

Dancing in Suchu is rite of passage for many a Houston dancer. Tina Shariffskul has been dancing with Wood since 1993. "I enjoy the collaborative process," she said. "Especially with the new people. I get the style quicker, but Jennifer is still so unpredictable, I really never know what she is going to do."

Kristen Frankiewicz, a recent University of Texas graduate, is in her second season with the troupe. Frankiewicz thought about other dance cities, but when a chance to dance with Suchu appeared, coming back to Houston seemed like a good idea. "Jennifer's movement is so different than what I am used to," Frankiewicz said. "I am used to powering through." Wood introduced the dancer to a whole new range of qualities. "There's a quiet calm to her work," she said. "We have to make it look easy. Just let it happen rather than make it happen. It's a constant struggle to get the qualities she wants, but that's why I am there."

Over the years the dancers have developed a common language or "suchu-isms" that gets passed on from the veterans to the newbies.

'Blaz hands' are a combination of blades and jazz hands," Wood quipped. Jessica Prachyl demonstrates "Slap the baby." Lindsey Sarah Thompson joyfully shows off "alien baby," which she sadly admits is not in this piece. Wood can't resist a quick replay of "stroke arm," a move that cracks up the whole troupe.

As with most Suchu pieces, Wood is also the costume and sound designer, in addition to choreographer. The score for The Formers mixes classical, sound effects and drumming. Straightforward gray and maroon shirts and pants show Wood on the paring down path.

Jeremy Choate, the lighting designer, knows Wood's vocabulary inside and out. He has been lighting Wood's work for so long they have developed a kind of non-verbal communication. Although Wood has dropped the artifice of sets and elaborate costumes, her pieces are still heavily atmospheric and Choate is the one giving us that sense of a "world" in which dance happens. "The challenge is to find the kind of no-mind Jennifer comes from, and by no-mind, i mean inner stillness," Choate said. "And don't ever ask Jennifer what the piece is about; it's up to you to discover that."

My advice after all these years of Wood watching: Don't think so much as you enter her movement imagination. Don't worry about figuring it out. Sit back, let the lush feast of delicious moves wash over you and enjoy the ride on the suchu-mobile.

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Suchu Dance presents The Formers December 3, 4, 5, 11,12,13, at Barnevelder Theater, 2201 Preston.