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Tome of the finest college and university dancers in the country were in the Valley of the Sun recently, as the Southwest Regional Festival of the American College Dance Festival Association was held at Scottsdale Community College (SCC) March 13-16, 2004. The event (which was partially sponsored by the MCLI Fine Arts Development Office) is the premiere college dance festival in the country. Hosting the event is an honor for the college chosen to do so, and is also an indicator of the general strength and quality of dance programs in the Maricopa District.
According to the director of the SCC Dance Program, Patricia Bodell, "There were 31 colleges and universities from all over the country that attended the festival. We had groups from the University of Minnesota, Wagner College in New York, New Mexico State, and UC Berkeley. Hosting the festival was a real milestone for our program, but it was made so much better by the fact that two of our sister colleges (Chandler-Gilbert and Glendale) were participants." Bodell added that "these festivals are the best type of education that a dance student can possibly get, because they get to see the very best dancers and choreography from the participating colleges, and then get to hear feedback from three nationally-known dance professionals."
It is the opportunity to work with professionals that Glendale Community College's Dance Program Director, Lenna DeMarco, finds so useful for the students in her program. "For many of our students, the ACDFA Festival is a decision-maker. Exposure to the professional world helps them decide if they really want to pursue dance as a career, and continue on with their dance education". Sally Jesse, Director of the Dance Program at CGCC added, "For our students this is a great time to network. They get to perform for representatives of colleges and universities that may wish to consider them for transfer. On the other hand, the students also get to see the dancers from those colleges and universities perform, and that gives them a good idea as to whether they would really like to transfer there or not."
Student participants at the festival chose from 144 different classes to attend, with diverse movement styles and techniques ranging from West African dance and flamenco to traditional ballet and modern dance. Other classes included Baroque dance, social dances, and body percussion. In most cases, the movement classes were accompanied by live music provided by professional musicians. There were also many non-movement classes, including dance movement analysis, panel discussions on dance-related topics, and even a dance film festival. In addition to the classes there were 51 pieces adjudicated, three informal concerts each featuring a historical reconstruction, and a Gala Concert featuring the presentation of adjudicated pieces selected for their exemplary artistic quality.
Hosting events of this type takes many months of planning. Preparing the activities and lodging for 350 conference participants was stressful for the members of the SCC Dance Program, but the experience was well worth the struggle. Says Patricia Bodell, "During one of our many planning meetings, one of the maintenance people from the college told me that he thought after this event we should go over and see if we couldn't help straighten out things in Iraq. It wasn't quite that complicated, but there were sure a lot of days when it felt like that kind of logistical challenge."
The American College Dance Festival Association is a non-profit organization that exists to support dance in higher education primarily through the sponsorship of regional and national college/university dance festivals. For more information about this organization, visit http://www.fsu.edu/~acdfa.
For more information regarding dance programs in the Maricopa Community College District, please visit:
http:/.www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/arts/getinfo/dance.php
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