March 15, 1985

WHAT is it that makes one dancer in a stageful suddenly grab our attention? It isn't necessarily the star, or even the performer who does the steps the best. Is it personal magnetism? Or the way the dancer approaches the role? Sometimes it's hard to tell. But you know it when you see it. And, with the spring season well under way, the phenomenon can be studied this weekend in six dancers who are performing around town on their own and with some of the weekend's leading dance companies. Much of the attraction has to do with the dancer's concentration and sense of self. Such a performer is Richard Fein in the Kathryn Posin Dance Company, with which he will perform tomorrow at 8 P.M. and Sunday at 2 P.M. at the Joyce Theater, on Eighth Avenue at 19th Street. Here is someone whose potent presence and intense immersion in the dance draw the eye inevitably to him. Mr. Fein previously appeared with the Eliot Feld and Pennsylvania Ballets and with Ohad Naharin, a modern dance choreographer.

The American Natural Resources Corporation today accepted the Coastal Corporation's cash offer of $65 a share and said it would complete a friendly merger that includes curbs on Coastal's freedom to break up American Natural or move its headquarters. The total value of the transaction is about $2.5 billion. It will make Coastal the owner of one of the largest gas distribution networks in the country, with more than 21,000 miles of pipelines ranging from Texas and Louisiana to the Middle West and the Rocky Mountain states. Other Interests American also owns interests in more than 1,500 oil and gas wells and has Appalachian coal mines that produced 3.9 million tons in 1984. It owns a one-quarter share of the Great Plains Coal Gasification Project, which is nearing completion.

Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d said today that he did not favor imposing blanket economic sanctions on countries that produced or shipped narcotics, although he said he viewed the ''objective'' as ''a good one.'' In an interview shortly before being formally installed as Attorney General, Mr. Meese elaborated on a variety of topics. These were among them: - He is not inclined to seek changes in antitrust laws and says enforcement decisions should be made so as to help American companies compete worldwide. - He does not foresee changes in the department's enforcement policies on civil rights, although he wants to improve communication with minority groups and civil rights leaders who have been critical of the Administration's performance.

FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1985 Companies Coastal agreed to buy American Natural Resources and pledged not to break up the company or move its headquarters. The merger is valued at about $2.5 billion and will make Coastal one of the nation's largest gas distribution networks. (Page D1.) The Washington Post Co. plans to buy 17 percent of Cowles Media of Minneapolis. Analysts said the Post might eventually take control of the newspaper company and its main asset, The Minneapolis Star and Tribune. Terms were not disclosed, but several analysts said the Post probably agreed to pay $53 million or more. (D5.) The Minneapolis newspaper has endured a series of crises in the last three years. (D5.)

THERE has always been more to St. Patrick's Day in New York City than the parade, although the parade, now grown to more than 200,000 marchers and 195 bands, was something many people, and certainly elected officials, did not dare miss. If you are not an elected official, however, or if you simply prefer Irish theater, or Irish folk music, or Irish food, the city's restaurants, bars, playhouses and parks have enough planned this weekend to keep you thinking of St. Patrick until Monday - without even setting foot near Fifth Avenue (where the march begins at noon tomorrow). You might, for example, direct your feet to Lower Manhattan, where the history of the Irish in New York City has been played out since before the first St. Patrick's Day parade in 1762 and where, around City Hall, the influence of the Irish community in politics has been indisputable since the late 1800's.