Students of Penn State's first summer dance program and professional dancers will come together tonight to showcase the skills they've learned over the past two weeks.

Penn State's Dance Theatre program is presenting "Evening of Dance" at 7 p.m. in the Pavilion Theatre.

"All of the students had to be really focused, really committed," said Elisha Clark, head of the dance minor at Penn State.

Students in the program took four dance classes a day for two weeks in areas ranging from ballet to improvisational and modern techniques.

"It gives you an outlet for whatever you're feeling," said Mia Parise (senior-stage management), a student in the program.

Tonight's program will feature a series of short dance segments representing the various genres covered in the program, culminating in a group dance choreographed by Clark called "Better Angles."

Parise said in this final piece, the dancers' movements and gray clothing convey how impersonal life can sometimes be.

"You can walk around your whole life and you'll walk by people you'll never know," Parise said.

The program will also feature guest performances from the Pennsylvania Dance Theatre. One of the pieces, called "Province," features two dancers, a man and a woman, using a hand mirror and shiny red and gold robes as props.

"This is the kind of piece that is both very satisfying for me to perform and it touches people," said Jill A. Brighton, a company dancer and leader of the Central Pennsylvania Dance Workshop.

Another piece features a Chemical Brothers electronic music track mixed with the voice of a fundamentalist preacher.

"It creates this interesting kind of tension," Andre Koslowski, head of the Pennsylvania Dance Theatre, said.

The flagship summer program contained a class of only 15 students, but Clark said she's looking forward to higher enrollment should the program continue.

"We're hoping for many, many more next year," Clark said.

Before participating in the summer program, Megan Moore (senior-kinesiology and integrative arts) made her professional dance debut last month in New York City with the Burnidge Clark Dance Project.

"It's really great," Moore said of the Penn State program. "You can have the whole day devoted to dance."

Moore said dance appeals to her in part because of her interest in anatomy.

"I like to explore the way our bodies can move to create form, time, space and emotion," she said.