If an artist’s work is a reflection of his or her persona, choreographer Jorma Elo has some explaining to do.

Mr. Elo’s works — the latest of which, “Glow-Stop,” will make its premiere this Thursday with American Ballet Theatre — unwind like gyroscopes spinning off their axes. His ballets are at once vigorous and elegant — carefully edited constructions of darting limbs and intricate, whippet-fast partnering sequences. Mr. Elo’s “Plan to B,” which he created for Boston Ballet in 2004, has been described as “a maelstrom of off-kilter sky piercing turns” in these pages.

But the 45-year-old Finn’s choreography is distinctly at odds with his personality. Mr. Elo, in fact, is about as serene as a person can be. He speaks quietly and with careful articulation, and often doubles back on a conversation to address a point discussed several minutes earlier. With his heavy-lidded eyes, lightly flushed cheeks, and propensity for form-fitting T-shirts that showcase his slim but sculpted physique, Mr. Elo calls to mind a gentle yogi.

“I’m calm, so the opposite kind of attracts me a little bit more and I’m drawn to it,” Mr. Elo said between rehearsals. “If I have a lot of time … ” Mr. Elo mimed falling asleep in his chair, “everything fades out of me.”

Mr. Elo need not worry about having too much time on his hands these days. In fact, his languor might simply be fatigue. In addition to his ABT premiere next week, Mr. Elo is slated to develop seven new works this season for companies as varied as Germany’s State Theatre Nuremberg and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He will also choreograph a new piece for Boston Ballet, where he has served as resident choreographer for just over a year. And he will see at least four of his previous works presented this season, including “Slice to Sharp,” made for New York City Ballet’s Diamond Project. Presented in May, the ballet will be remounted in February 2007.

So how to reconcile Mr. Elo’s quiet demeanor with his outsized choreography and increasingly public persona? His associates have their theories.

“He’s a bottleneck,” ABT’s artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, said. “His energy’s where you can’t see it. It’s in his choreography.”

Which makes said choreography no easy feat. “You can see in it a really classical background,” Boston Ballet’s artistic director, Mikko Nissinen, said. “But then you can see [William] Forsythe and Jirÿí Kylián. And then there is this sliver of Jorma, and that what makes it special.”

A recent rehearsal for “Glow-Stop” with ABT dancers Paloma Herrera and Jesus Pastor provided a study in the perils of mastering Mr. Elo’s work. Ms. Herrera and Mr. Pastor attempted a thorny sequence in which Mr. Elo called for her to leap into his arms with one leg raised in front of her, switch both the direction of her body and the placement of her legs while in the air, then drop into Mr. Pastor’s arms. He was then to deposit her on point in arabesque.

The sequence did not go as planned.

Ms. Herrera took flight, but, instead of ending in a statuesque pose, found herself hovering over the ground, her nose about five inches from the floor, her torso just barely supported by Mr. Pastor. As he righted her and placed her on her feet, their exhales were audible from across the room. Ms. Herrera’s forehead dropped into her hands.

Though their mishap registered a reaction — Mr. Elo placed a comforting palm on Ms. Herrera’s back — the choreographer later disclosed he was more concerned that “Glow-Stop,” which is set to sections of both Mozart’s Symphony No. 28 in C and Philip Glass’s Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, was proceeding too smoothly.”It’s going quite fast, so that’s a bit scary,” he said. “That’s an unusual way to have it happen. The last few times, things were not ready when they were supposed to be, so it’s totally the opposite thing. That starts to worry me.”

That his work here has proceeded efficiently, though, may not be coincidental. In some ways, ABT’s dancers, with their international pedigree and American home base, are perfect matches for Mr. Elo’s proclivities. Though he was born and raised in Euorpe — he trained with the Finnish National Ballet School and the Kirov Ballet School, and danced with Mr. Kylian’s Netherlands Dance Theater for more than a decade before transitioning to choreography — he admits he prefers to work with dancers and companies in America.

“People are used to being fully motivated,” he said of his experiences with American dancers. “They know those moments that you have in the studio to make it — that’s it. European dancers may be like, ‘Okay, it’s the creation, we’re preparing for something that happens later on, and it’s the performance that I really concentrate on.’ And here there’s no big difference.”

That respect for work ethic has played itself out in numerous ways. The choreographer continues to take ballet class every day, and, in rehearsal, demonstrates his own complex combinations for the dancers, dashing off jumps or lifts with the ease of a newly anointed corps member. “He just does crazy things with his body — he can move so well,” a dancer, Sascha Radetsky, said. “We just try to mimic it as best we can.”

“A lot of times he will grab you and he will do it with you,” dancer Maria Riccetto said of working on partnering sequences with Mr. Elo. “So it’s like a teamwork kind of thing.” When asked whether she found Mr. Elo’s partnering more complex than that with which she is accustomed, Ms. Riccetto answered in the affirmative. “Yes,” she said, then paused momentarily. “Yes, yes, yes.”

Mr. Elo’s commitment to his trainees is one reason Mr. Nissinen appointed him resident choreographer after having worked with Mr. Elo at Alberta Ballet, where Mr. Elo’s “Blank Snow” became a calling card for the company during its European tour. “He has a very specific talent with working with individual dancers,” Mr. Nissinen said. “I feel like my dancers would jump off a cliff if he asked.”

Indeed, Mr. Nissinen feels so strongly about Mr. Elo’s capabilities that he plans to involve all of his disciples — from pupils at Boston Ballet’s school to professionals in his company — in training with Mr. Elo. “I want people to get exposure to his way of moving early on,” Mr. Nissinen said.

What’s next for Mr. Elo? More work, of course. “Some people think I do a lot, but actually it’s less than I was doing when I was dancing at the same time,” Mr. Elo said with a laugh, recalling how he began his work as a choreographer while still dancing with NDT. “I feel like I’ve just started making choreography,” he said. “I want to work with every company there is, and see what we can make together.”

Begins October 19 (City Center, West 55th Street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, 212-581-1212).