One might not take seriously a dance company named after a hardy form of dung fungi.

And according to Robby Barnett, co-director of Pilobolus Dance Theatre, you shouldn't.

"You can't enjoy this job if you don't have a good sense of humor," Barnett said.

The Pilobolus Dance Theatre, which has been shocking and amusing audiences for 19 years, will ply its curious combination of dance, acrobatics and bodily contortions at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Eisenhower Auditorium.

Presented by the Center for the Performing Arts, the six-member company will perform three works, including its newest piece, The Particle Zoo.

"The program for Penn State is a blend of our career work," Barnett said in a news release.

The Particle Zoo is a male quartet piece that made its world premiere last Friday at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh. The piece will be accompanied by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.

The Pittsburgh Dance Council commissioned The Particle Zoo for $87,500 to commemorate its 20th anniversary, said David Stock, conductor for the New Music Ensemble.

Susan Mandler, manager of Pilobolus, said in a recent phone interview that The Particle Zoo "is a very physical, energetic piece. There is no real purpose to it."

Eleven musicians from the New Music Ensemble will perform The Particle Zoo. Stock said the collaboration between Pilobolus and the Ensemble began over two years ago when members of the Pittsburgh Dance Council asked him with whom he would like to work.

"They wanted to involve at least one local artistic group and one national group. I've wanted to work with Pilobolus for nearly ten years," Stock said.

"The music for (The Particle Zoo) is very accessible, very physical, and this particular piece has a little more electronic music than I usually use," Stock said. "So it almost has a jazz and fusion influence."

The New Music Ensemble is a professional ensemble-in-residence at Duquesne University that only plays 20th century music -- "95 percent American music, most of it very recent," Stock said.

Pilobolus will begin its University performance with Land's Edge, a piece choreographed in 1986. The work is a dancing folk tale inspired by an Edvard Munch painting and is set to a hybrid of Scandanavian- and Irish-flavored folk music.

"It's a good example of our experiments with more darker, narrative dance," Barnett said.

Debut C, the final work of the evening, is a pun on the name of the French composer Debussy, whose music is used in the piece. Some nudity is involved in the dance.

"I think Debut C is more of a ballet. The piece is very visual," Barnett said.

The idea for Pilobolus originated in 1971 with members of a dance class at Dartmouth College. The four original dancers are now Pilobolus' artistic directors.

Since its creation, the group has played on Broadway, received commissions from the American Dance Festival and won numerous awards for artistic creativity. Pilobolus has also made special appearances on "The Tonight Show" and "Sesame Street."

Their works are represented in the repertoires of several major dance companies including Joffrey, Hartford and Verona Ballet.

Barnett said the pieces chosen for the concert do not represent any major departure from the Pilobolus style of 19 years ago.

"Everything by and large has latent germinal forms. We're not doing anything we didn't originally do or experiment with in some way," he said.

The Penn State Pilobolus production is part of the Pennsylvania Touring / Commission Project. It is supported by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pew Charitable Trusts created with funding by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tickets are available at the Eisenhower Auditorium Ticket Center, open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Playhouse Box Office, open Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Reserved tickets cost $16 and $14. Student tickets are $12 and $10.