Troupe Will Show Its Mellow Side : Dance: Jazz Unlimited will emphasize a soft-edged, modern style of movement at its season opener this weekend.

Twisting torsos, gyrating hips and high-voltage leg work are basic ingredients in Jazz Unlimited’s recipe for success. The San Diego-based dance troupe has mixed and matched these contemporary cliches many times, and they usually add up to sell-out concerts.

But there’s a mellow side to the Jazz Unlimited oeuvre that rarely surfaces in company concerts. It’s this soft-edged, modern-based style of movement that the ensemble intends to thrust into bold relief during Jazz Unlimited’s season-opener this weekend. The two- performance concert, slated for San Diego State University’s Don Powell Theater, will take place at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

“We’re moving toward a more lyrical style--a modern jazzy combination,” said co-artistic director Alicia Rincon. “We’ll still have some New Age, but we’re (exploring) more of a lyrical style, and, in this upcoming show, you’ll see that new direction.”

The modern dance influence will be strongest in Melissa Nunn’s “Summons,” a dance juxtaposed against the ominous percussive qualities of Lucia Hwong’s Tibet Suite.

“Melissa’s piece uses Asian-style music, and it’s very modern, very beautiful,” Rincon said. “Pat’s (Patricia Rincon’s) piece, ‘Sun Gods,’ is similar, but it takes a different direction. It’s more lyrical and dreamlike, but not necessarily softer. Both are very different from our typical works.”

With those two works, Jazz Unlimited is preparing to bridge the gap between its standard brand of contemporary jazz and modern dance. The company also has high hopes of expanding its dancer and audience base with this shift in emphasis.

“If we bring in more modern style dance, we can start bringing in more modern dancers,” said Rincon. “We have Faith Jensen-Ismay (of Three’s Company and Dancers) working with us this time. Faith came into the show because she saw us as a breath of fresh air for her.

“There are a lot of modern dancers we could attract with more modern,” Rincon said. “We could really get something good going then, and we’re very excited about that. And, of course, that would help us reach a new audience also.”

Fortunately for Jazz Unlimited, most of the core

dancers can make the crossover from jazz to modern. New additions, such as Jensen-Ismay, will concentrate on the modern mode and sit out the high-velocity jazz romps.

As Rincon explained, “We’re going to try this, and see how it works. I think we’ve found a happy medium for everyone. We’ve always been a flexible company and anxious to please our audience base.”

Jazz Unlimited is not forsaking the die-hard jazz dance buffs during this period of “upgrading,” Rincon noted. To satisfy their appetite for hard-driving rhythms and brash, non-stop moves, the troupe will recycle its rambunctious “Company Break,” an ensemble work that flaunts all the trappings of contemporary jazz in its whiz-bang maneuvers.

Rincon herself will premiere a funky threesome for Richard Bulda, Maria Parra and Stacy Scardino, titled “On the Road.”

“It’s hard to have all the same style, so I’ll do what I do best. My piece is more theatrical, and whimsical,” she said. “It’s more of my typical cartoon-style--bright and offbeat.”

“Trilogy,” a retrospective dance work by Rincon’s sister and co- artistic director Patricia, who alone guided the company until this year, is another revival slated for this weekend’s program.

Patricia Rincon also choreographed the third company premiere, “Grounded,” although by the time the concert gets under way she will be thousands of miles from home.

“Pat went back to Europe” as part of her sabbatical from UC San Diego’s dance program, said her sister and kindred spirit. “That means I’m directing the show. It’s my first show without Pat, so that’s a big step. It’s a good thing Pat was so panicked about leaving, she got her dances done early and left me the easy part. That’s why we’re really prepared for this concert.”

Alicia Rincon, a lead dancer in the troupe, will perform in only one piece this weekend. Her new administrative duties forced her to curtail the on-stage activities.

“My goal was always just to be a dancer,” she said. “But I realized that Pat could not do it all (administrative work) herself. In order for the company to grow, I had to get more involved, since we had no money to hire people for that. Of course, this means I had to pull back my dancing.

“What’s really important to Pat and to me is that we have money for the dancers. We try to give them enough to meet their needs.”