Ira Glass tells more stories of 'This American Life' — with dancers

Ira Glass is well known for being one of the most culturally astute figures in America. As creator and host of “This American Life,” Glass has played a major role in re-establishing radio as a medium for creative storytelling. And with its blend of authority and wit, his show has inspired no shortage of imitators.

The bespectacled radio host was once deemed “not famous enough” to be parodied on “Saturday Night Live” (in a 2011 “Weekend Update” skit that got cut), so we can only wonder whether Fred Armisen was up to the task.

But the question of the moment is: Can Glass dance?

Presented next weekend in the Edison Theatre’s Ovations series, “Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host” promises to be one of the most offbeat arts events of the season. Glass will share the stage with dancers Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass, of Monica Bill Barnes & Company, in a program inspired in part by stories from “This American Life.”

“Basically, I tell stories and the dancers dance,” Glass said recently from his office in New York. “Which I know sounds awful. But I swear, it kills wherever we do it.”

So what’s involved in bringing together dance — a highly visual medium — with radio, which has no visuals at all? In this case, Glass said, it was a matter of recognizing what “This American Life” and Barnes’ company have in common.

“It’s kind of simple,” he said. About three years ago, Glass “saw them perform, and there was kind of a documentary quality to it — where they were capturing real feelings, and moments that happen with people.

“But also, they were super funny. It wasn’t dance that was inaccessible. There were sparklers and batons. They seemed like people who would try anything to entertain.”

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In its sensibility, Glass said, the company reminded him of his show — “even though we use all words to do what we do, and they use no words.” Eventually, that led him to look into collaborating with Barnes, whom he had already met through a “Dancing With the Stars”-style event in Brooklyn — he as a dancer, she as a judge.

In 2012, Glass commissioned Barnes to create pieces for “This American Life Live!,” which was simulcast nationally to movie theaters. Barnes recalls Glass offering to go on the road with the company as a way of further bringing it to his audience’s attention.

“I counteroffered and said, let’s just make a new show,” Barnes said. Glass credits her with being responsible for “100 percent of the visuals.”

“Monica is the director, so I’m a player in her show — which I like very much,” he said. “I had to get used to being in a show, where there’s light cues and costume changes and props.”

While much of the show is adapted from “This American Life” stories, Glass said that deciding which of the stories to use, and how to use them, was problematic within a dance context.

“We realized early on that we didn’t want the dancers to be exactly depicting the things that were happening in the stories,” he said. “Instead, I’m telling one story, and the dancers and their movement are telling another, related story. It sounds way more arty than it really is. The trick was to be able to find topics that a person would be capable of dancing about.”

The show is divided into three acts — about the dance life, about love and about losing what you love. The first act draws on interviews that Glass conducted with the dancers.

“There’s a bunch of pieces where you see them dance, and then what you hear is clips from the interviews, which tell you what’s going through their heads when they do these moves onstage with each other,” he said.

Glass has no professional dance background and is coy about whether — or how much — he actually dances in the show. But he said his lack of experience with the art form might have been a plus.

“There’s a whole world of people who love dance and see a ton of dance,” he said. “But I think the fact that I was more of a civilian affected the shaping of the show. And so it’s a dance show that’s partly shaped by somebody who really doesn’t know anything about a dance show.

“And that’s one of the things that makes it audience-friendly.”