People use different vehicles in an effort to get the word out about projects that are near their hearts.

Art4Life is a group comprised of people who want to do just that.

At 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday, Art4Life will give a benefit dance concert at the Music Building’s Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.

Admission is $7 and all proceeds will go to its affiliate, the Dance For Life Foundation, an AIDS organization in Chicago.

The benefit dance concert’s purpose is to inform people about AIDS through the use of dance, and has been going on for the past seven years.

“This is the only benefit concert we do each year unfortunately,” vice president Maggie Redman said. “We just put all of our efforts into this one concert, and AIDS unfortunately is very common in the dance and theater community.”

Over the years, Art4Life has become an endeavor made between the dance department and the theater department. Several pieces will be performed this year, including ballet, jazz, tap, modern and hip-hop.

“The feature piece this year, though, is a piece by Randall Duncan,” Redman said.

Duncan is a choreographer from the Chicago area and is re-staging the performance of “Inside Your Heart” that he did in 1997 for the Dance For Life Foundation.

“It’s a beautiful modern piece and it just brings the cause of the AIDS benefit to life on stage,” Redman said.

Participants in Art4Life are passionate about what they are doing. Next year’s Art4Life president, Jessica Kelpsch, is one of them.

“I have always thought of myself as a sort of leader and I figured that this would be a beneficial way to help others while I’m dancing,” she said.

Jamal Jones, a junior business administration major, attended the concert last year.

“I don’t usually enjoy the arts that much, but I went last year for a class and I thought it was pretty good,” he said. “I especially enjoyed the Janet Jackson number they did.”

Last year’s benefit concert raised about $2,000 for the Dance for Life Foundation. This year, Art4Life has been active around the DeKalb area in promoting the concert. Group members have been doing car washes, performances at Amnesia (1000 W. Lincoln Highway.) and the King Memorial Commons. They already have raised about $800 and are hoping to raise another $2,000 through the concert.