An abstract fusion of body and spirit

Choreographer Terry Beeman unites an array of dance techniques and vocabularies in distinctively sensual, meditative abstractions that have earned him a devoted following in the local arts community. He says that the four untitled sections of “Piccolo Concerto,” at the Lillian Theatre on Wednesday, represented portions of a more complex forthcoming work on the theme of power. Set to moody contemporary ballads, each seemed to give him a different problem as dancer or choreographer and served as an index of his creative growth and mastery.

The opening duet, featuring Beeman and Sam Cahn, involved intricate, liquid, slow-motion gymnastics -- the kind of highly exposed technical challenge that sometimes made other members of his nine-dancer company look a mite effortful later on.

Here, however, perfect control kept the duet a dreamlike idealization of emotional and physical rapport, a concept that Beeman sustained in a sharper-edged, more balletic partnership with Brenda Hamilton immediately afterward.

Using side-by-side synchronicity, his duet with Kelley Parker in another section of the work evoked the plight of two people with matched instincts unable to break through their isolation to the contact that both of them wanted. The intimacy of the Lillian helped heighten expressive details -- Beeman touching Parker just once, briefly, on the shoulder, for instance, or his fingers narrowly missing hers just before the end.

Beeman’s solos also benefited from close inspection, whether they featured the sky-sweeping extensions and fabulous balances familiar from past works or new experiments: the sudden abandonment of his flowing, nuanced style for violent shifts of speed, level and direction. Or a sudden complete flip in the air with no evident preparation.

Elsewhere, however, the small stage could barely hold Beeman’s contrapuntal groupings (a quartet in the center, for instance, flanked by two duets, with someone alone at the back). His focus may be inward and his use of yoga positions may suggest that a process of self-discovery is taking place, but Beeman is a sophisticated, communicative theater artist.

On bigger stages, such full-evening ensemble works as “Atmospheres” and “Bound” have displayed his ability to project ambitious thematic statements at the grandest possible scale. “Piccolo Concerto” offered a sumptuous preview of another dance experience of that sort, one linking body and spirit with his special sensitivity.

As usual, intense streams and sprays of colored light created a magical environment for Beeman’s choreography Wednesday -- but at some cost, since audience and dancers alike had to breathe all the oil-based smoke that made Rob Fritz’s effects possible.

Besides the dancers already mentioned, the company included Nikki Blakeslee, Ellys Cortez, Jeffrey Crawford, Preston Mui and William Wingfield. Beeman wanted them to be seen at all times as alluring, skillful and passionate, examples of sculptural beauty and technical prowess but always deeply involved in their needs and feelings, never merely on display. All choreographers and companies should ask this much of their dancers -- and come this close to getting it.