Doubters of dance's escalating clout in the Rochester arts scene should check out Geva Theatre's performance schedule for the next two weeks. Geomantics Dance Theater, a Rochester-based company, is booked for eight performances of its show "Do Animals Meditate?" as part of Geva's SpringFest. Heady stuff in the dance world. Geomantics became the first purely modern dance company to grace Geva's stage with its 2009 FallFest performance; now this two-week run.

"I love the innovation and energy of Geomantics," says Geva Artistic Director Mark Cuddy. "They push the boundaries of dance-theatre in a fresh way."

At the helm of Geomantics is founder, artistic director, and choreographer Richard Haisma, 64, an ex-Manhattanite who once shared a stage with Rudolf Nureyev and has the (hush-hush) backstage stories to prove it. Haisma toured extensively with the Murray Louis Dance Company in the 1970's, then went on to enjoy a successful solo career during the 80's and 90's.

Geomantics' past appearances include performances with Rochester Contemporary Dance Collective (Haisma was a co-founder) and Bush Mango Dance, and participation in the ROTO (ROchesterTOronto) performance series. The company has been invited to be part of the Nazareth College Dance Festival this summer. Current members of the Geomantics troupe include Whitney Denesha, Molly Christie, Yuko Hashimoto, Namako Horikawa, Curtis Stedge, Michael Thireos, and Andrea Vasquez.

"Do Animals Meditate?" consists of four suites of three dances each: "Surveillance Suite," "Moody Suite," "Dear Abby," and "Meta-and-Physical Suite." Mood and theme impacted the program's arrangement to some degree, but it mainly seems as if Haisma is trying to offer up his work in appetizing, bite-sized bits - a tray of miniature pastries rather than a heavy layer cake. Most of the dances are just a few minutes long. The title piece is the last dance in the last suite, and explores the animal side of human nature. Including Haisma, five men, (three of whom are, coincidentally, black belts in Tae Kwon Do) appear in the show.

"Doris Humphrey once said that all modern dances are too long, and I agree," Haisma says. "They're also too abstract. People don't want to feel that the wool is being pulled over their eyes."

Haisma promises his own choreography will be both accessible and engaging, describing the pieces as punchy, poignant, and pleasing.

Haisma holds a master of arts degree in dance from SUNY Brockport and is a certified movement analyst in Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) from Laban-Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York City. Adherents to LMA seek to better understand movement by breaking it down into four separate, but interrelated components: body, effort, shape, and space. Haisma's dedication to LMA was a primary motivating force in the conception of his company - then called Calabash - in 2000, and continues to drive his work today.

In a recent interview, conducted in Haisma's book-lined office housed in industrial warehouse space, he spoke eagerly about his adherence to the techniques of Rudolf Laban, the Austro-Hungarian choreographer and dancer internationally recognized as a groundbreaking movement theorist.

"Laban invented the most comprehensive system for analyzing movement. He was interested in movement wherever it happened, and developed a common language to describe it - an objective, fundamental language," Haisma said, uncrossing his legs to edge forward in his chair, the intensity of his explanation combining with his shock of white hair and glasses rendering him of professorial mien. "It's the language of the future for dance."

And it's a language that Haisma feels morally responsible for imparting to others, a legacy he feels compelled to continue. "My company is absorbing this language through me by osmosis," he says.

But analyzing movement is not something Haisma expects nor desires of his audiences. He wants them pulled into his choreography, absorbed in the dance, and he is proud of his company's strong theatrics.

"Our shows reunite serious modern dance with her separated-at-birth brother called entertainment," Haisma jokes. "There is an ancient gene for theater in people. Our sense of theater truly exists on a cellular level. And that's where you have to go as a choreographer."

All but three of the dances in the Geva show are Haisma's creations. Also included is renown modern and tap dancer/choreographer Bill Evan's visceral duet for two men, "Alternating Current," which is the first dance in the "Meta-and-Physical Suite" and performed by Curtis Stedge and guest artist Mark Allan Davis. A dramatic solo by Don Borsh, "In Black and White," is the second dance in the "Moody Suite" and will be performed by Stedge. Guest artist Larry McGory, a Geomantics alumnus, will make an appearance in his haunting "pole dance" solo to the music of the Throat Singers of Tuva.

Performing with the Geomantics will be local band Night Gallery (you may have heard them at the Bug Jar), led by Eric Zabriskie, whose traditional rock instrumentation is enhanced with melodica, marimba, glockenspiel, and violin.

Geomantics Dance Theater: "Do Animals Meditate?"

May 13-23

Geva Theatre Nextstage, 75 Woodbury Blvd.

Thu-Sat 7 p.m., Sun 1:30 p.m. | $20 | 232-GEVA, gevatheatre.org