When it comes to his current projects, Chase Brock has zero chill.

Be More Chill, the cult hit off-Broadway musical he choreographed, is now Broadway bound. Meanwhile, the artistic director of the Chase Brock Experience, a Brooklyn-based dance company founded in 2007, is premiering his first evening-length dance-theater piece: The Girl With the Alkaline Eyes, featuring CBE company members and an original score by Eric Dietz, is a futuristic thriller about a young tech coder and his lifelike A.I. creation.

Brock, who’s married to Emmy-winning music director Rob Berman, explains how he’s been programmed to code queerness into his work.

What inspired The Girl With the Alkaline Eyes?

I’ve done small chamber works with my company for 10 years, so this piece is a new direction for us. When I was exhausted from storytelling in commercial theater, my company was where I focused on a piece of music, a visual idea, a feeling, a mood. But then I was like, “What if we do something narrative, a full evening with a plot?”

How did you come up with the plot?

I was thinking of what genre would pull people in, a genre requiring the taut storytelling we demand of good movies or a binge-worthy Netflix series, which led me to a thriller. The first ballet I was in as a pre-professional student was Coppélia, a light comic ballet with a dark German undercurrent, and I thought it could be updated with a 21st century American feel. Instead of an old grandpa doll maker, it could be about a young, sexy coder working in technology.

It sounds like a Black Mirror episode.

There’s actually a Black Mirror episode about futuristic robot dogs, “Metalhead,” that was very influential for us. It has nothing to do with dance, but it tells the amount of story that something wordless can tell. Ex Machina was another big reference point.

Is there any romance between your coder and his robot creation?

We wanted to rewrite the sexual politics of Coppélia. We were looking at sexuality in a 21st century, personal way, so there’s actually an unrequited love that the young coder, Oliver, has for his boss, Troy. Troy discovers Oliver’s secret creation, Co, and it’s Troy who falls in love with her. It’s a love triangle with no healthy way out for anyone involved.

I love a queer twist.

Well, when you look at relationships in American story ballet, queerness doesn’t really exist. But certainly in my life and in my collaborator Eric Dietz’s life, it does exist, as it does for most of the dancers in the company. We don’t want to perpetuate putting on a mask to tell stories, largely for and by our own community, while ignoring our community in the characters. So it feels really wonderful to have queerness be a part of the piece.

You describe yourself on Instagram as a “Fiercely Liberal Gay Vegan Choreographer.” How does your sexuality inform your work?

It’s a terrific question, but it’s even larger than that. My sexuality, background, training, tastes—everything I am informs my work. I’m creating in this moment with a mashup of all my history and experiences.

Speaking of personal taste, you’re always turning colorful, eccentric looks. Where does that fearless sense of style stem from?

I just think fashion should be fun, and I’ve always connected to color. The four walls in my childhood bedroom alternated bright orange and lime green. When I moved to New York in 1999, the Chicago revival was still in vogue and it felt like every New Yorker—certainly every dancer—was doing head-to-toe black, very chic. I went there for a minute but then decided to march to the beat of my own color. Whenever I try toning it down, it never feels right.

Do you ever hear from young queer people who have been inspired by your work and authenticity?

Yes. Most theater and dance projects attract a crowd with a large LGBTQIA+ contingency, so of course I want to be a visible voice and ally. I have that kind of interaction on every project with audiences or with younger people on my team, which I also had early in my career with older actors, artists, designers.

Be More Chill, which is about a nerdy teen turned popular by a pill-sized super-computer, has especially resonated with young audiences since its 2015 premiere at New Jersey’s Two River Theater.

Yeah, it’s been so fulfilling to be a part of this phenomenon. We’ve been speaking our truth to the world, the people who needed to hear it have heard it, and they’re speaking their truth back to us. There’s an amazing online community between the Be More Chill family and our fans.

Most of the Be More Chill characters are high school students. How did that shape your choreography?

I’ve always felt connected to high school stories, maybe because I dropped out of high school to move to New York when I was 16. I don’t have a complete reference for that period, so maybe I’m nostalgic, creating my own fantasy version of what it would’ve been like. High school is when you’re still finding yourself, figuring out who you’re going to be in the world, and that’s incredibly ripe for musical theater storytelling. It’s our responsibility to tell the most woke, inclusive version of this story in 2019, letting the characters continue to blossom into full, layered, complex people.

You first came to my attention when you swooped in to choreograph Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark after creator Julie Taymor’s departure. I wrote a blurb for The Advocate about how producers had essentially hired you, writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and director Philip William McKinley, a trio of gay superheroes, to save the day.

I remember that blurb and I appreciated it. It was funny because the show had been largely created by a straight woman and straight men at that point, so it was cool that a queer team was coming in. But we had to laugh, because is it really news that three gay men had to fix a musical?

Five years after Spider-Man’s closing, how do you look back on that experience?

That show introduced so many people to theater for the first time. I can’t tell you how many young boys I saw jumping around on the lobby stairs, webbing each other, basically being inspired by male dancers, connecting with that storytelling in a way they might not have with Wicked. It felt very cool to be a part of that. I love connecting to a very large, broad audience, so that remains the most special part of that experience for me.

Your most recent Broadway credit was the 2013 revival of Picnic, choreographing for peak-sexy Sebastian Stan. Best gig ever?

Oh, yes. Sebastian and Maggie Grace had this duet, and there was a big dip at the end. They were pretty new to dance and both wanted to work with me on every single phrase, so I would go back and forth playing him for her and her for him. While dipped in Sebastian Stan’s arms, an amazingly dreamy position to be in, I was definitely grateful for my job!

The Girl With the Alkaline Eyes runs through January 13 at the Clurman Theatre in New York. Be More Chill begins February 13 and opens March 10 at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre.