Momix’s Baseball.

Janet P. Levit

Some things are hard to define. Consider a particular performance company from Connecticut.

At times its members act like artful pole vaulters executing choreography through the air, or comical car mechanics on carts scooting around the floor, or, when joining forces and bodies, like sculptors assembling themselves into fantastical creatures — and all the while moving to music.

Call it dance, or any combination of things: acrobatics, gymnastics, theater, mime, puppetry with people, or perhaps simply engrossing.

Momix returns.

The iconic, internationally known performance troupe, whose members call themselves illusionists, will perform next weekend at the Providence Performing Arts Center. Once again, for the second time in three years, Momix provides the grand finale for the five-weekend FirstWorks Festival.

This may seem odd for a festival founded on firsts — either appearances by groups in Rhode Island, or shows by them. But the reason Momix is back, according to Kathleen Pletcher, executive artistic director of FirstWorks, is simple.

“It’s Momix.”

It’s exceptional. Momix is most likely like nothing you’ve seen. And you haven’t seen anything like this show before, because, true to festival format, it’s new.

But it’s also old, 25 years in the making: Best of Momix.

The company, founded by Moses Pendleton, its artistic director, is celebrating its history with a cross-sectional sampling of it, presenting 20 works drawn from a repertoire of well over 100.

“They’re like children in a family,” Pendelton said in a phone interview. “You can’t always pick a favorite. But you can’t have three female solos to adagio music in a row. The show has to have a musical curve.”

The 90-minute show will be different than the shows most people associate with Momix: thematic. In its more recent history, Momix has presented full-length productions exploring a particular topic, such as baseball, the moon or the desert.

In 2005, Momix performed that desert show, called Opus Cactus, in Providence, which this reviewer characterized as “stunning . . . an awe-inspiring display of visual effects.”

At least one dance from that show, “Gila Dance,” which involves four men impersonating a centipede, or whatever would be its 16-limbed equivalent, will be part of this Best of Momix show.

You’ll see a lot of strange things in the show, including dancers hanging from wires and standing in skis.

“If people have not seen Momix before, they will get a good feel for what Momix is: visual theater. We use objects and sculpture in a way to create locomotion and imagery. It’s not your normal dance company. It has its own style.”

That style hasn’t changed markedly over the years, just its presentation.

Momix is based in the tiny town of Washington, Conn., a mile from the home of Pilobolus, another performance troupe that presents dance, theater and artful imagery and illusion. Pendleton, the Momix founder, was also a founder of Pilobolus, which he left after 10 years to start Momix, which in its early years presented shows involving disparate dances.

“I thought of shows as kind of visual albums to music. There would be material for side one and for side two. It took on the dynamic of a music concert.”

Then Momix began creating dances around a central idea to make full-length shows.

“Doing the Best of Momix is like going back to Momix from the early years.”

In the thematic Momix shows there’s usually a unified artistic message, although Pendelton, as artistic director, refrains from stating what that message is, and certainly won’t try with a best-of show.

“We leave that up to the audience. There are evocative images, pairings and sculpture. But we don’t tell a story. There is energy and amusement. Some of the pieces have their own beginning, middle and end. I think people will walk away with a little less gravity in their step.”

But this is not the kind of dance show, such as one featuring ballroom or ballet, that may make some in the audience want to do it themselves. It’s far too physically demanding. However, when pressed on what people may think after seeing the upcoming show, Pendleton offers an answer.

“They may think it’s time for me to see my shrink.”

Best of Momix is Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Providence Performing Arts Center, 220 Weybosset St. For tickets, call (401) 421-2787 or visit www.ppacri.org. For more information, visit www.momix.com, or www.first-works.org.

brourke@projo.com