Susan Koff first heard of The Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Co. more than 10 years ago when she was a dancer in New York City.

This Thursday, the instructor of exercise and sports science will dance with the company.

At 8 p.m. in Eisenhower Auditorium, Koff and 35 University students will perform with the company's dancers in the fourth section of Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Choreographer Bill T. Jones' piece looks at issues such as racism, AIDS and homosexuality, but Ken Foster, director of the Center for the Performing Arts, said the performance is not specifically about any of these topics.

"This is a dance about all of us," he said.

Based loosely on Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, the performance explores oppression and repression through dance.

Koff said she feels the performance is about humanity.

"By being on stage, I am making a statement," Koff said.

The first three works of the performance, "The Cabin," "On the Ice" and "The Last Supper," set up the problems that exist in society.

The last section, titled "The Promised Land," sets up a solution and makes the audience part of the performance, Foster said.

The work premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last November as part of the Next Wave Festival, and the group has been traveling extensively since then, he said.

Foster said he was interested in the company performing at the University because of the quality and diversity of its dancers in age, shape, size and sexual orientation.

For its performances, the company always auditions community dancers. The troupe also invites a local minister to engage in extemporaneous dialogue with Jones about life and death.

In this production the minister is Edward Messersmith, the Episcopal chaplain at Eisenhower Chapel.

Messersmith has never met Jones and does not know what he will ask.

"It is a very spontaneous unscripted part of the play that really looks at faith," said Messersmith, who will also relate a biblical story.

Although he will not formally prepare for his role, Messersmith said that he is not nervous about his performance.

Another non-University addition to the production's cast is Jones' mother, who travels with the group and actively participates in the performance by reciting a gospel-style prayer.

Foster said preparations for Thursday's production began last November, when Jones sent his ballet master and a member of the company to audition University students and community members for "Promised Land." Auditions were open to everyone, including those without previous dance experience.

Koff said the audition consisted of improvisation and was an emotionally grueling experience. The dancers were not taught specific steps; rather, they had to draw on their own feelings and experiences.

"It brought me back to why I dance," she said.

For the past two weeks a rehearsal director from the company worked with University dancers, who have practiced four hours a day, five days a week.

University dancer Michael Buchanan (sophomore-English) described the dancing as modern and energetic.

"The dance piece is very athletic," he said.

Koff said the style in the piece begins in a straightforward manner and then departs from a strict formal dance style.

The dancers, who will be dressed in black, start out fully clothed and end the piece in the nude.

Buchanan said that although he felt apprehensive at first about the performance's nudity, the underlying meaning for it is important.

"Everyone is really the same. People forget that," Buchanan said.

Having previously seen "The Promised Land" with other guest dancers, Foster said he was stunned by the performance's impact on him.

"You sort of transcend the fact that people are nude. It is not at all sensational or sexual," he said.

Tomorrow night, for the first time, dancers from the University and the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Co. will come together to practice the piece.

Julius Hemphill's Saxophone Sextet, which travels with the company, will perform for the production. Hemphill was commissioned to write the score, Foster said.

"It is a real contemporary form of jazz," Foster said.

Foster said the performance forces people to think about issues and concerns.

"It forces us to confront ourselves on difficult issues," Foster said.

The Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company was formed in 1982 by Jones and Zane, who died of AIDS-related lymphoma in 1988. Since then the company has received national recognition. Jones, who has received several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, has also performed on PBS television.

Tickets may be purchased through Eisenhower's ticket center. Prices are $15 and $12 for adults and $11 and $8 for students. For more information contact the ticket office.