Fall fare Fusionworks’ bonus Blast! BY JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ

Dance fans take note. Two of Rhode Island’s homegrown companies — Fusionworks and Island Moving Co. — have customarily had annual concerts in the spring and summer, respectively. But this year both are offering a second opportunity to see their work at fall performances in Sapinsley Hall at Rhode Island College.

Dance is perhaps the most evanescent of art forms. But once in a while you get to have another look at a particular dance, to see it with new dancers or new phrasing and organization from the choreographer. Fusionworks’ program called Blast! brings us three works from their repertory and two new pieces from artistic director Deb Meunier and Stephanie Stanford. I saw all but Stanford’s in rehearsal last week.

The show opens with a premiere of From Park to Hillcrest to Highland, sparked by hearing the Celtic band Broderick. "Their music lifts me, even though it’s simple and spare," choreographer Meunier explained. "It’s like hanging with my best friend — it’s light and free and innocent."

The dance starts with slow walking steps, like a bagpiper might take. Each of the seven dancers takes a step forward and then holds the count with the back leg behind them. As they weave between each other, one and then another breaks this hypnotic movement with their arms, unfolding forward and then clasped across their chests.

Gradually the beat picks up and the dancers ease into soft leaps, their heads leaning to one side and then the other. The leaps change to skips and hops with lots of twirling, arms akimbo, and then the seven form circles and spirals in a folk-dance allusion. Despite the Celtic sounds behind them, this never slides into Riverdance. Here there is fluidity rather than rigidity, even in the lineup at the end, when the dancers form a casual curve, not a chorus line.

Meunier’s Fire In the Lake was first done in 1989, and it deals with an abusive, manipulative relationship. It is danced to a mix of Oregon and Elvis Costello, with abstract animation projected behind the dancers. Meunier and Rhode Island College student Tim Rubel turn in compelling performances, with facial expressions — a suspicious stare, a set mouth, an angry glare — adding to the mood of the movement. The dance begins with Meunier holding two short wooden slats cradled in her arms. Rubel on the opposite side of the stage takes measured, deliberate steps backward toward her. When he reaches her, the anticipated explosion of rage initially takes the form of grabbing the sticks and throwing them on the floor, with a loud clatter. She jumps away and her movements suggest an attempt to protect herself and to take care of her children (or the child inside her). But Rubel comes toward her with pleading hands on bended knee and she’s pulled back into the relationship. It’s a very powerful piece, in the individual gestures — a clenched fist or pointed finger — and in their interactions — he picks her up and throws her, then lifts her again and holds her pressed to him, as he carries her around. If this sounds more like mime than dance, it’s not. It’s just that it’s more concrete, and more hard-hitting, than others.

The piece that follows this is much more abstract and certainly lighter in tone. Martha Armstrong Gray’s Elliptic/Stippling Line was seen a few years back and is in two movements to original music by Glen Valez. The first is a solo by Stephanie Stanford, which looks like a combination of tai chi and modern dance poses, freeze-framed with precision and exuding an inner calm from the dancer. The second is a maniacally timed trio in which Kerrie-Jean Hudson, Paige Parks, and Laura Newell bounce almost constantly, at first on a diagonal line, as if they are stippling a piece of paper. Eventually, their arms begin to fly out and their bounces vary their direction, but their movements remain staccato, an indictment of our fast-paced, overly mechanized way of life.

Lizards II is a re-working of Meunier’s 1995 Lizard In the Window. Still inspired by the Dylan Thomas poem whose first line is "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower drives my green age," Meunier has tightened the flow and expansion of ideas and movement. Tom Farrell has supplied new music. And a new configuration of four dancers (Stanford, Hudson, Newell, and Mary Manning) tackle the crouching, crawling, languid motion that keeps them close to the floor in bends, rolls and lunges. When they rise to partner, they accomplish tricky balances and tight torso articulations. Though Meunier maintains she only had our primal "lizard brains" in mind for this dance, the actual lizard references are hard to escape. Catch this dance and come to your own conclusions.

Fusionworks will perform at Rhode Island College on November 21 and 22. Call (401) 456-8144.