ANN ARBOR—In the mid 1970s, Christian Matjias first heard Elvis Presley and was hooked.

Three years later, Matjias developed a deep interest in the Beatles and British rock, and within the next year, he was swept up in the wave of British punk rock. Shortly later, upon listening to Claude Debussy’s ” Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun,” Matjias had an epiphany: Music would be his life and career. He was 19 years old.

Call it a dream with a hitch. Back then, he had only rudimentary music-reading skills and was a long way from mastering an instrument. Twenty-five years later, perseverance, a sense of destiny and an innate talent have taken him a long way.

Matjias’ newest composition, ” Na Razie, Bez Ciebie,” inspired acclaimed choreographer Uri Sands to create ” Existence Without Form,” a featured dance in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre’s New York season which kicks of its North American Tour. The national premiere of this four-movement collaborative work is Dec. 8 at the New York City Center.

“Few dance companies can effectively articulate so many styles, or perform such a breadth of repertoire as does the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre,” said Matjias, associate professor of music and dance at the University of Michigan.

The tour, which runs through April, includes performances in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Montreal, Memphis, Chicago, Charlottesville, Boston and Newark. ” Existence Without Form” has already played in AAADT’s fall European season, which opened in Copenhagen, Denmark in September.

“They can embody whatever style or technique they are called upon to perform as if it were their sole, primary language,” Matjias said.” AAADT honors and preserves their past for succeeding generations of dancers while simultaneously being dedicated to charting new paths, engaging choreographers, dancers, composers and others committed to preserving our relatively young traditions while also supporting the creation of new artworks.”

The collaboration with Sands” named one of the top 25 choreographers to watch by Dance Magazine” marks one of the high points in his career, Matjias said.

Matjias arrived at the University of Michigan in 1998 from Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, where he taught music theory and accompanied for their vocal, instrumental, musical theater, dance, and choral programs.

Sands is co-director “along with his wife, Toni Pierce-Sands” of TU Dance in Minneapolis. He is an occasional principal dancer and choreographer for the North Carolina Dance Theatre, and danced previously with the Alvin Ailey American Theatre and Philadanco.

The entrancing composition presents layered currents of swirling arpeggios and haunting, throbbing chord progressions. Each movement builds into a meditative landscape whereby dancers interpret the rhythms and moods in gestures representing change and emotion, and whereby the human body becomes an abstract subject” a vital, living sign of existence moving without labels, descriptions or form.

The piece offers a glimpse into Matjias’ creative process whereby he follows the direction of feeling and the way of the heart, often times showing the defiance of his rock-and-roll roots and the inquisitive mind of moving among major and minor keys in search of authentic, complex harmonies.

“When I write, I close off my conscious mind and have no preconceived idea as to where I should go,” Matjias said. “I work from a sense of what feels right for a particular movement or dancer.”

It’s an unconventional approach for an artist in the academic world. Yet a unique and compelling style that draws on many of Matjias’ eclectic influences.

In the early 1980s, Matjias was living in the southern suburbs of Los Angeles, working at a record store where his broad taste in music may have been the soundtrack of his life, but certainly didn’t look as if he’d have a career in music. “I made top-10 lists,” he said. “It was very much the classical music version of ‘High Fidelity.'”

While pursuing his degree at the University of Southern California, he would study music scores and try to intuitively grasp the nuances of note patterns on the printed page. That sense of harmony and natural aural curiosity is a major reason Matjias has evolved into an acclaimed composer, who has recorded several CDs, at times improvising part or all of a composition while in the recording studio.

His love of dance began with a job playing piano in a studio, and from that time, he explains, ” I made an effort to work with as many people and styles of dance as I could, and watch as much dance as was possible.” In the last few decades, Matjias has worked with dancers from companies around the world.

In addition to teaching, performing and composing, he has developed an original line of dance scholarship, reconstructing musical scores for landmark choreographic works. His primary effort” with the approval of the George Balanchine Trust” has been the development of ” The George Balanchine Critical Editions,” where he has reconstructed rehearsal scores for ” Concerto Barocco,” ” Apollo,” and ” Serenade.” He has also reconstructed (with the permission of the composer) the performance score for the Lar Lubovitch/Philip Glass work, ” North Star.” Through his efforts, Matjias is helping to preserve the history of significant dance scores, while also creating and collaborating on new works with contemporary dancers and choreographers.

Listen to Christian Matjias’ music