At the beginning of the second act of “Oklahoma!,” the audience is greeted with a dance: A young woman — bald, powerfully built and wearing a sequined shirt that says “Dream Baby Dream” — appears, surrounded by swirling fog, as if she were a mirage.

That dancer, Gabrielle Hamilton, runs, prances, twists violently from side to side and pauses to stare boldly at audience members. Her presence, uninhibited and raw, is meant to shake things up. This may be Broadway, but the dream ballet in Daniel Fish’s brilliantly reimagined “Oklahoma!” is ages from the usual step-ball-change kind of dance found there. And that’s wonderful.

[Read about how John Heginbotham created the dream ballet.]

Why has it stirred up such strong reactions, with audience members loving or hating it? Clearly, it strays from the norm. It’s unnerving. And it’s not afraid of looking ugly. That its choreographer, John Heginbotham, wasn’t nominated for a Tony Award seems both shocking and not at all surprising.