Kathleen Hurley never meant to start a modern dance company. In fact, Hurley never even meant to work as a dancer in Iowa.

Hurley, a Des Moines native, started her professional dancing career in New York.

“I came home for vacation, and some friends and I got together in the studio because we wanted to stay in shape,” Hurley says. “We started choreographing some dances, and things kind of snowballed.”

In 1996, Hurley and her friends decided to start a dance company, then called “The Chamber Dancers” and now called “Hurley and Dancers,” after receiving a grant to put on a modern dance performance.

“At the time, there weren’t really any professional modern dance companies in central Iowa,” Hurley says.

Now, eight years later, Hurley and Dancers is still the only modern dance company in the Des Moines area.

The company is “reportorial,” Hurley says, which means that its performances are directed by multiple choreographers.

The company’s latest performance, “If I Die on Stage, Please Call My Mother,” which has toured in Minnesota and parts of Canada, is no exception.

Hurley says that although she choreographs some of the dances in the show, she also solicited dances from dancers from all over the state, including Amy Martin, lecturer in health and human performance, and Ames dance instructor Emily Finch.

“It’s not like going to see a play because you will see a variety of different dance styles brought out by the choreography,” Hurley says.

Stephanie Kobes, senior in journalism and mass communication and a Daily staff writer, is also a member of the company and will be performing in two of the dances.

The audience will get to see very good examples of different styles of modern dance, Kobes says. She says some pieces will have very fluid and soothing movements, while others will have quite a bit more action and energy.

Kobes says the performance will be different from going and seeing another type of dance performance such as ballet or jazz because “there are no rules in modern dance.”

“In modern dance, you’re free to do whatever you want to do,” Kobes says.

“It’s all about movement invention.”

There is no real overall theme to the performance because of the nature of modern dance and because of the multiple choreographers, Hurley says.

“On one side, it’s kind of funny, and on the other side, it’s kind of dark,” Hurley says.

Kobes says each member of the audience will take away something different from the performance.

“With modern dance, it’s really left up to the audience to interpret what it meant to them,” Kobes says.

Who: “If I Die on Stage, Please Call My Mother”

Where: Des Moines Playhouse, Des Moines

When: Nov. 20, 7:30 p.m.

Cost: $8-$10 at the door