Rising above all expectations, The Chamber Dancers professional dance company has grown powerful in its two years together and will be proving it in this weekend’s “Spring Dance Blast” performance.

What makes this performance special is that many believed there was no need for a dance company in Iowa, especially after the demise of Ballet Iowa, a professional dance company that was based in Des Moines.

But The Chamber Dancers have proven the skeptics wrong.

“We’re doing more contemporary dance and music to appeal to a younger audience,” Kathleen Hurley, director of The Chamber Dancers, said

According to Hurley, the creation of The Chamber Dancers was not planned but came together as an effort of three dancers who were reunited.

Hurley, Iowa State student William Schneider (senior in dance) and ISU alumni Garin Buttermore grew up together in Ames and danced under the same instructor when they were younger.

Although they each left Ames heading in their own directions, they reunited in the summer of 1996 and began practicing together again.

“It just spontaneously exploded into a dance company,” Hurley said.

December 1996 was the group’s first public performance and in 1997, it was awarded two grants from the Iowa Arts Council the Department of Cultural Affairs.

The goal of The Chamber Dancers is “to have the dance be fulfilling personally, but we also want the audience to be inspired.”

The Chamber Dancers’ “Spring Dance Blast” will feature three other dancers including Kelly Bartlett, freshmen in dance. Bartlett has been dancing for 15 years and has been dancing with The Chamber Dancers since January.

“I am honored that I am considered talented enough to dance with [them],” Bartlett commented. “The dances are new and refreshing, and it’s a nice change of pace to see what people are doing outside of little town dance studios.”

This performance will also include two professional dancers — Paula McArthur from Des Moines and Nina Pramendorfer from New York.

The performance includes eight modern dances with a variety of music, ranging from Handel to Metallica.

One of the pieces, “Shallow Grave,” was choreographed by Schneider to the music of Prodigy. Bartlett and Schneider are featured in the piece that portrays a disturbed man who is having flashbacks of a vile crime he committed and focuses on how he deals with his guilt.

“I think [Shallow Grave] is the strongest piece in the concert because of the strong and sharp physical movements in it,” Buttermore commented. “This piece is beautiful, but it’s also meant to spark feelings like discomfort,” Schneider agreed.

Another featured piece is “Four for Three,” choreographed by Alan Sever, a professional choreographer at the University of Iowa. The piece features music by Handel and dancers Buttermore, Hurley and Schneider.

“Four for Three” is based on the imagery of movement from one extreme to the next.

“I think that ‘Four for Three’ has beautiful flow,” Schneider said, “and [it] displays some of the strongest dance from a pure movement point of view.

“We want to thank Janice Baker and Laurie Sanda for letting us use [the Forker Building],” he added.

The Chamber Dancers’ “Spring Dance Blast” will be Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m., at the Betty Toman Studio in the Forker Building.

Tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for students and children and will be available at the door.