The mercury was edging past 80 degrees when Le Patin Libre, the Montreal skating troupe that is redefining the art of dancing on ice, brought a new show to the Martha’s Vineyard Ice Arena for its U.S. premiere on August 3 and August 4.

Saturday morning, ticketholders blinked as they entered the cool, darkened arena from the bright and hazy forenoon outside. Wrapped in unaccustomed outerwear, they felt their way to seats and cushions at either end of the rink, where a layer of carpeting covered the ice.

Encouraged by the $5 kids’ ticket price and 11 a.m. show time, many parents brought children with them. There was some wriggling and fidgeting in the dark, but only until the skaters appeared. Once the five performers began to move, even the smallest viewers sat in fascinated stillness.

Le Patin Libre makes frequent use of vertical space. — Maria Thibodeau

Le Patin Libre’s new piece Threshold retains many of the elements that Island audiences will remember from the company’s previous two engagements: custom lighting, rhythm-heavy original music, motionlessly gliding figures and dazzling moves. It also surpasses everything we’ve seen in past performances.

Working with dramaturg Ruth Little, lighting designers Lucy Carter and Sean Gleason, choreographer Anne Plamondon and composer Jasmin Boivin, who also skates with the troupe, Le Patin Libre has created a work of startling originality and beauty.

It begins by plunging the arena into darkness, with only the red glow of the exit signs above the doors and reflecting across the ice. When the lights come up, the skaters are on the rink. As they begin to move, the only sound is the carving of their blades across the frozen surface.

Then a great bass note reverberates, again and again, the beginning of a counterpoise between music and skate sounds that lasts throughout the work. Mr. Boivin’s rhythm-heavy electronic score ranges from hypnotically minimalist to dramatic, dropping to silence several times.

Four members of Le Patin Libre were professional figure skaters and ice dancers, and their training shows in some of the spins, leaps and lifts they perform. But it’s their ensemble work that is most mesmerizing to watch.

At times the skaters rush across the ice like a tight flock of starlings, before scattering across the arena in solos and duos or moving around a single member who may be motionless, soloing, crouched or lying prone.

A cool show for a hot day. — Maria Thibodeau

Their signature glides, performed in perfect stillness, take the skaters back and forth as if on swings, or backward at speed with arms folded.

Le Patin Libre also makes frequent use of vertical space in Threshold, with the performers crouching low to the ice and rising high on their skate tips. Samary Ba, the tallest member of the troupe, deploys his long legs and arms both high and wide; company founder Alexandre Hamel spins on his back like a breakdancer.

Everyone spends some time down on the ice, which provides Threshold with some deeply tender moments as the skaters seek to rise and revive each other.

A duet between Mr. Hamel and Pascale Jodoin, the troupe’s only female skater, overflows with loving concern as she lifts him, her hand behind his head. The two spin to a pulsing beat and then are joined by Mr. Ba, gliding with legs akimbo and arms out.

Even the smallest viewers were frozen in awe. — Maria Thibodeau

Saturday’s performance made a strong impression on seven-year-old Naomi Biel, a skater visiting the Vineyard from Chevy Chase, Md. where she’ll soon start second grade.

“It was pretty emotional,” she said. “Pretty darn emotional.”

Le Patin Libre’s performances were sponsored, with support from regional and national arts foundations, by the Yard. Yard artistic director David White first brought the troupe to the Vineyard in April, 2016, for their U.S. debut.

They returned in March, 2017 and Mr. White says the Ice Arena will host them in future years as well, under an agreement with the Yard and the YMCA, which operates the rink.

During this summer’s visit, the skaters held a workshop at the Ice Arena on August 2 and also hosted a skating party following Saturday night’s performance.