One of the pleasures of a life filled with dance is the way, at the end of the day, a performance can force the mind to change course, to quiet down. William Forsythe’s program at the Shed, “A Quiet Evening of Dance,” which opened on Friday, takes that to another level.

Mr. Forsythe has created a setting — not completely silent, but nice and hushed — that encourages listening with both the ears and the eyes. The last thing you would want to hear under such conditions? A beep, buzz or, God forbid, the marimba ringtone. Putting our cellphones in airplane mode was the easy part ; more difficult was grasping the poetry of this two-act program. And that wasn’t because of the sound or lack of it.

Actually, it isn’t completely quiet. The second half features a lively dance set to to Jean-Philippe Rameau, and in the first half, there are bird sounds and a spare composition by Morton Feldman. For the most part, though, it’s up to the dancers to create the score with their steps and breathing, and for the audience to absorb it.