They said they were going to challenge the physical limits of the human body — find out what is possible and what isn’t. And they had every audience member’s full attention as dancers did partnering tricks, flung each other around and accomplished physical feats that had the audience holding its breath.

This is how the Joffrey Ballet began their show “Winter Fire,” which ran Feb. 15-26. The Joffrey performed works from three of the most prestigious choreographers in the U.S.: William Forsythe, Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor, who came to the Joffrey to stage his piece with their dancers.

The choreography in “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated,” Forsythe’s piece, brings together classical ballet and modern dance to create an athletic piece that contrasts the gracefulness of a dancer. Although less graceful, the dancers in this piece must still adhere to the strict technical demands of the choreography. The piece was set to an electronic score that heightened the excitement even more by complementing the choreography with very loud, low and high bass sounds. Dancers climbed over each other, turned and flipped in the air and extended limbs beyond a 180 degree angle.

These dancers moved faster than most thought was possible and did stunts that left the audience awestruck. As Mary Flynn, a mother of two girls that sat behind me in the theatre, put it, “They had muscles where I didn’t know muscles existed.”

Wheeldon’s choreography, “After the Rain,” slowed down the pace to let the audience breathe, as the three couples on stage explored the shifting emotions of a relationship, reflecting the dramatic feelings and the feelings of separation that couples go through. The dancers would go from very slow, flowing moves to strikingly bold moves and back again, reflecting the emotional turbulence couples have.

McGregor’s piece, “Infra,” characterizes the monotony of life in the city by providing a computerized screen of graphically designed people walking down the street. Through their movements, the dancers on the stage exposed the emotional turmoil that exists within the inhabitants of the city and goes largely unnoticed. The piece was made to convey how a city may look, but underneath, the emotions of the inhabitants are chaotic and disorderly.

Mahallia Ward, a dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, enjoyed working with McGregor because she could get a better understanding of what he wanted from the dancers, while also exploring her artistic freedom. “It was so interesting to be coached by him and to learn how to achieve his desired quality of movement and performance. We also had a lot of freedom to make our own decisions about the story we were portraying,” she said.

Murmurs from the audience after the performance included, “I’m going to try that when I get home. We live close to a hospital, right?” and, “What if they got mad at you? They could just kick you in the face and you’d be down.”

The audience consensus seemed to be that the show was a huge success. The dancers stunned and captivated the audience in all of their pieces, and left them wanting even more.