Choreographer Akram Khan – an expert in the blend of music, dance, and narrative known as Kathak – does not choreograph dazzling movement for its own sake. He made that point in his first fullevening work, “Kaash,” presented here in 2003. And he reiterated it on Wednesday night with his thrilling new work, “ma.” The piece explores two affecting and meditative tales about earth and motherhood. (The Hindi word ma means earth and mother.)

Mr. Khan’s dancers have mastered his unique mix of contemporary dance styles and Kathak, the fast-paced, intricate style from northern India. But there is more than dance to think about here.Two dancers, balancing upside down in a yoga position with their legs reaching skyward like branches, recount the parable of a barren woman who is disappointed when God gives her seeds to plant rather than children, even though she grows to care for them as if they were children. They repeat the tale near the end of the work, a sequence that surprisingly borders on the precious.

The charismatic Mr. Khan, who was born in London, tells the second story, describing what happened when he visited his mother’s village in Bangladesh as a child. Unable to get her attention, he would hang upside down from a tree and hope that his questions would pour out of his head into the earth, which would answer. Images from these tales recur throughout the work. They seem to suggest that we live in a topsy-turvy world – or, perhaps more simply, that the earth is in chaos.

In what resembled a primitive ceremony, Mr. Khan and the dancers, who wore brown- or rust-colored shirts and pants, responded to the stories by transforming themselves into elements of nature. They appeared to struggle, blossom, and die in continuous cycles. The lighting alternated between startlingly bright and soft as candlelight; at times, the dancers appeared in silhouette. All the while, Mr. Khan took choreographic risks, occasionally allowing minutes to pass without sound or movement, perhaps to convey life’s rhythms. A few sequences went on too long, and audience members walked out.

Mr. Khan drew inspiration for “ma”‘ from the fate of thousands of Indian farmers recently displaced by flooding. Few people live as closely connected to nature as they do, and their desolation stirred his thoughts on the ramifications of man’s disconnection from the earth. His willingness to take on such weighty subjects has helped make him – at age 31 – one of Britain’s most sought-after choreographers. He has won almost every major British dance award and his troupe tours 10 months a year.

Mr. Khan’s distinctive background also sets him apart. Not only did he study Kathak throughout his childhood, as a teenager he toured with Ravi Shankar in the dance drama “The Jungle Book.” He later performed in Peter Brook’s stage version of “The Mahabharata.” After studying ballet and the techniques of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, he trained at Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s famed avant-garde school in Brussels, Belgium.There, he fruitfully collaborated with other choreographers and came to know the work of Pina Bausch. It was also there that he created the solo, “Loose in Flight,” which in 1999 brought him to the attention of the British public. In 2002, he co-founded his company in London with Farooq Chaudhry, his collaborator and the company producer.

Mr. Khan is a top choreographer of the moment, and as such, he has especially unusual projects coming up in the next few months. He is choreographing for French superstar ballerina Sylvie Guillem at Sadler’s Wells in London and he is working on a project for the French film actress Juliette Binoche. In the fall of 2006, his “Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings,” a collaboration with Steve Reich, will be performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Mr. Khan is an artist who embraces the world in all its manifestations – and the more he does, the more we benefit.

“ma” will be performed again on April 28 and 29 (Time Warner Center, Columbus Circle at 60th Street, 212-721-6500).