But, in the minds of Kristyna Lhotáková and Ladislav Soukup, it's the adults of this world who face the danger of getting lost, forgetting the passions that drove them to wander into the world to begin with.

Many months after that original inception, the final work, which premieres at Archa next week, only vaguely resembles the story about breadcrumbs and a gingerbread house. There's no witch, and really no villain other than the inherent loss of innocence that comes with growing up.

There is, however, a terrifying-looking wolf.

"The role of the wolf represents passion, which drives you far, far away when you are young," Soukup explains. It's a benevolent wolf, though, not the stereotypical fairy tale creature that tormented Red Riding Hood. This wolf embodies everything that makes young people avoid responsibility and stress, allowing them to simply live for what they love.

"We think it's good to be friends with the wolf and not lose him ... as many people do," Lhotáková says.

She and Soukup found their own wolf of sorts while developing Hansel and Gretel. Soukup was inspired to create a piece about youth after seeing footage of young protesters in the media. He realized he had become removed from young idealists, he says, and could not relate to them like he once did. So he and Lhotáková began formulating their idea for a dance piece about humans' tenuous grasp on youth.

"And," he adds with a sigh, "we realized we don't like them." Not personally — it's the general impatience and impetuousness of youth that Soukup and Lhotáková found they don't care for. Just as parents complain about how teenagers believe themselves to be immortal, Soukup says, "The utopia of youth is something I realized I don't like."

"Young people are very independent, and we don't like it, because you work very hard and they only laugh," Lhotáková adds.

But both Soukup and Lhotáková admit that maybe the older generation is just envious. "The real point [of Hansel and Gretel] is that we are sad because we are not young anymore," Lhotáková says.

Hansel and Gretel is the third in a trilogy of works about age that Lhotáková and Soukup have created over the past few years. The first was Question for Next Year, centered on the story of an elderly woman. The second installation featured two middle-aged men.

The new piece features four performers — two men, two women — who are not trained dancers. Lhotáková describes the mechanics of the piece more as "movements" than dance steps. Soukup and Lhotáková will also appear onstage during Hansel and Gretel, but as narrators, not dancers.

Another feature of Hansel and Gretel that sets it apart from traditional dance pieces is the inclusion of three brief films during the 55-minute performance. One features the wolf and angels; another four youths and their parents, to show the passage of time and loss of passion; and the third portrays what Lhotáková describes as "talking heads."

Soukup and Lhotáková have been creating dance works together for 10 years now, to the acclaim of audiences and critics alike. Despite what their latest piece says about the frustrations of aging, neither shows any signs of slowing down. For the next few months, they will be traveling back and forth between Prague and North America as they set reinterpretations of Hansel and Gretel for groups of young dancers in Mexico and New York City. This fall, the performers from abroad will travel here to work with performers in Prague for a comprehensive presentation of all three works together.

As scary as it may look in Hansel and Gretel, Lhotáková and Soukup don't appear to be running from their personal wolf.