International choreographer Aaron Cash keeps coming back for more.

Cash said that not only is Whidbey Island an enchanting place to visit, it is also a fertile place to get the choreographic juices flowing.

Cash was on the island for 12 days this month working on a new dance with Whidbey Island Dance Theatre members at the studio in Clinton. He returned after visiting two years ago, when he created “The Reckoning,” which the company performed at its annual Dance and Choreography Showcase in 2009. This time, he even brought his mom.

“I can’t thank everyone on Whidbey enough, who treated my mother and me so well during our 12-day stay,” the choreographer said.

Cash and the dancers managed to get a lot done in 12 days.

The new piece, titled “Syrenica,” will be performed this year during the spring performance.

Cash said he had already chosen the music for the piece before he arrived, but was struggling to find a concept for the dance.

“The music I choose was a Philip Glass composition — a multi-layered arrangement — and, honestly, I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off,” Cash said.

But when he played the Glass piece “Runaway Horses” for company directors Charlene Brown and Susan Sandri, they both instantly loved it.

“I knew then and there this was the one,” Cash said.

Finding the theme for the piece was inspired by Cash’s reflections of being on the island.

“Susan had asked me if I could come up with something that had a mythical theme to it,” Cash recalled.

But he stumbled at first.

Since Cash is Australian, an Aboriginal-themed work was suggested. But the choreographer felt that subject was a bit taboo, and he decided against the idea.

He considered his all-female cast of beautifully trained artists, and once he started exploring the movement, he said, he found that it all had quite an alluring quality.

“So I thought to myself, ‘OK, Whidbey Island, magical, surrounded by water, lots of boats and I’m working with a female cast,” Cash said.

He thought of the Sirens from Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey,” in which the protagonist, Ulysses (aka Odysseus) endures a long and dangerous journey filled with mythological adventure.

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous bird-women portrayed as seductresses, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.

“Instead of beautiful voices leading sailors to their deaths,” Cash explained, “it’s beautiful dancing luring seafaring men to their ocean graves.”

The title, “Syrenica,” is one he made up.

“I don’t know, it just sounded right,” Cash said.

Such free association of themes and titles is fitting for the choreographer who may never have steered his ship toward this island.

The relationship of Cash and the company came about somewhat serendipitously when Sandri called Cash after taking a master class with him in 2008.

“Char [Brown] and I loved his movement, and the girls looked fabulous dancing it,” Sandri said. They were thrilled that he wanted to choreograph a piece for their small company.

After the success of “The Reckoning,” the directors asked him if he would come back.

“It’s been a wonderful collaboration for us. He works all over the world, yet likes choreographing on our dancers enough to stay in touch,” she added.

“I’m really pleased with the piece. The dancers worked so hard and are incredible in the work. I hope people on the island come out and support Whidbey Island Dance Theatre and their new creation ‘Syrenica.’”

Cash will return to the island to rehearse the dance once more before the company presents “Syrenica” for adjudication at the end of February, and before heading off to the Regional Dance America Pacific Region Festival in Las Vegas, Nev. from May 15-18.

The company will perform the public premiere of the piece at the annual Dance and Choreography showcase on May 7-8 on Whidbey.