When she was a child, Marion Motin would lie on the vacuum cleaner while it was on to feel it vibrating. “My mother used to tell me that I was very receptive to all the weird music of daily life—I would even shake my head to the sound of the dog eating out of its bowl,” she recalls. In the years since, the 39-year-old contemporary dancer and choreographer has made a career out of seeking what makes her vibrate: finding moves that feel right rather than rehearsed. She calls this “the immediate movement,” something so deeply ingrained in her being that she needs to act it out in order to describe it.

“It’s an instinctive movement, one you want to do right now, not just something you execute without knowing why. No, it’s like, right now I want to do this. Aargh!” she says...