Lights, camera, dance! Accompanied by Theatre and Dance Department Assistant Professors Melissa Rolnick and Jill Patterson, 19 Gustavus dance students attended the annual American Collegiate Dance Festival Association (ACDFA) in Milwaukee, Wisc. March 14-18.

The ACDFA conference travels around the country and is held in a different city each year. The name of the conference will be changing next year to the American Collegiate Dance Association.

The students watched a total of 48 performances and took various unique classes. They spent the four days of the trip eating, breathing, sleeping, and living dance.

Students gained experience through watching performances, speaking to other students and teachers from other schools, dancing, performing, and hearing feedback on their own works and others’. Pieces were viewed by participants in the conference and three renowned artists, Gerri Houlihan, Gesel Mason, and Bill Wade, gave feedback on the 48 pieces, while faculty gave feedback on the informal concerts.

There were three options of classes for students to take each day, as well as two concerts per day. There were also master classes taught by the adjudicators. A lottery drawing determined who could participate because there was not space or time for everyone to take them all.

11 pieces brought by attending schools were invited to the Gala concert this year, and both of the pieces brought by Gustavus were among them. One piece was choreographed by Patterson and the other was a student-choreographed piece by Senior Dance Major Johnny Bates.

Bates has enjoyed participating in the trip for the past three years.

“Presenting my choreography was my favorite thing. Having my work chosen to share at the regionals. Its a great experience, you make great connections with other schools around the region,” Bates said.

The conference is not just for dance majors. Anyone who is involved in the department or has some experience in dance is welcome to participate.

“Even those who aren’t putting dance as their number one choice for studies. It’s a great couple days to just be yourself and have fun and meet people. You learn a lot too, just from watching other performances and speaking to teachers from other schools,” Bates said.

First-year Dana Riebe also enjoyed her experience with the ACDFA trip and looks forward to continuing her participation in the future.

“I took a lot of different classes I’d never taken before. I took Indian. It was cool, it was intense because it was so different from everything I’ve done. I’m excited for next year, wherever it is,” Riebe said.

Professor Melissa Rolnick has chaperoned the event before and will likely do so again. According to Rolnick, the trip is a good experience for the students. They take classes with dance instructors from multiple schools, many of which the students could not take elsewhere.

There is a range of experience to be gained for the students from attending the conference such as performing in front of the adjudicators, getting to dance in many different kinds of forms, hearing and receiving feedback, and the community that they develop with other each other.

“It’s an incredible, eye-opening experience. They really bond during that time,” Rolnick said.

The students were able to compare their educations to those of other students from other institutions who attended. They were able to see what is happening in dance elsewhere around the region. That type of exposure is invaluable, according to Rolnick. The students were able to hear how people speak about dance and learn what is happening in the dance world.

Participating in the ACDFA trip was good exposure for all 19 students. According to Rolnick, those that performed had the additional exposure of gaining national recognition. This recognition is important for the individual participants, the ensemble, and the Dance program at Gustavus.

“In other words, we’re doing something right,” Rolnick said.