When the Contemporary Dance Company was formed seventeen years ago, it intended to provide a channel for the performance of modern dance by both students and faculty. The tradition continues at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, when the company brings its unique modern dance to Eisenhower Auditorium.

Pat Heigel-Tanner, co-founder and artistic director of the company, said the company's major aim is performance. This goal was uppermost in the minds of the founders when they created the Contemporary Dance Company.

"The faculty at the time felt a need to do their own research and their own choreography to work creatively. There was also a need for students to perform more," Heigel-Tanner said.

In this year's performance, she is presenting "Dance Suite," a trio of works set to the songs of Frank Sinatra.

As with any art form, the audience is an important part of performance for the company. "When you do something creative and put it out in the public's eye, it's nice to get a response from them," Heigel-Tanner said.

The performance will provide a variety of dance forms choreographed to many different styles of music, from Sinatra to the Kronos Quartet's "G-Song," which will open the show.

Liz Limons, the company's assistant director and choreographer of the piece, said "G-Song" is "basically a theme and variation." Limons described the work as "very much a movement piece, there's no dramatic theme." With "G-Song," she expresses "the joy of living through movement."

Limons' second choreographic work is "Strong Women" with music by Robert Fripp. This piece differs from the first in that the first focused on movement and this piece has a message. "It's about the perseverance of women in everyday life. It's grown to be a very important piece to me," Limons said.

Susan Koff, also assistant director, also places strong emphasis on movement. Her first two choreographic works of the show,"Plateas Majestas" and "A Little Bach" use the Limon technique, which focuses on breathing, as well as oppositional tension and fall and recovery.

"Plateas Majestas," concerns a group of people coming to a place and appreciating it. "There's a sense of community," Koff said. "Plateas Majestas" has two parts, with the first being a quiet movement as the people come to the place and discover it. The second is a celebratory piece and much more upbeat, Koff said. The piece is set to music by Andreas Vollenweider and Manheim Steamroller.

Her second piece, "A Little Bach," employs Bach's "Concerto for Violin in E Major." The work was shown last year, but Koff said she feels this year's performance will be its premiere because "it's the first time it's going to arrive with all of its elements intact," she said.

Koff's third and final selection in the performance is "Parallel Lives," featuring music by Olivier Messiaen. "This is completely different from the first two pieces," she said. "Parallel Lives" is a dramatic work, Koff said, focusing on "a contrast of a couple with a single woman." She said that the message is there, but it is not spelled out. "My way of working in drama is a little abstract. . . The piece is strongly motivated by style,and the movement is much more minimalist," she said.

A guest choreographer and performer with the company, Casey Sams Bealer is choreographing "Oblation," which she said is a kind of ritual offering and praises independence and interaction. Bealer said her piece is very dramatic. "It requires a lot of intense focus from the dancers involved," she said.

The fifth choreographer in the show is artist-in-residence Myrna Munchus-Bullock, whose work "A Movement Prayer" explores different modes of religious expression. "It reflects the intensity and devotion of different types of religious worship," Bealer said.

Like the works themselves, the costumes for the performance vary from simple and straightforward to flowing and graceful. In keeping with the theme of religious expression, the costumes for Munchus-Bullocks' piece are similar to choir robes.

The Contemporary Dance Company's performance will explore the wondrous motion of the human form.

Tickets are available at Eisenhower Auditorium. They are $5 for adults, $4 for students, and a 15 percent discount for groups containing more than 10 people.