On February 19, 2025, eleven undergraduate dance students and two faculty members from the Department of Theatre and Dance, part of the School of the Arts in the College of Liberal Arts, at the Â鶹ӳ», traveled to Modesto Junior College to attend the American College Dance Association (ACDA) conference. The northwestern regional conference brought together 25 institutions from across Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington for performances, master classes, juried feedback, research presentations and social experiences.
Associate Professor of Dance, Cari Cunningham, describes the conference: “The American College Dance Association is an organization committed to supporting dance in academia and choreography as a research practice. It offers students the opportunity to meet other college dancers, see a variety of choreographic works by faculty, guest artists, and students from schools in the region and listen to and receive feedback from a panel of adjudicators who are professionals in the field with differing backgrounds and lived experiences.”
The Department of Theatre and Dance presented two dance performances for adjudication. Dance and Musical Theatre major Alyssa von Eberstein choreographed "WhoDunnit?," danced by Jude García, Ora Harris, Juliette Hughes, Alexander Mead, Tiffanie Moreno and Sam Shepherd. Faculty member Cari Cunningham choreographed "Out of Pocket," danced by Brooklyn Carris, Nina Drobushev, Matthew Fish, Juliette Hughes, Demiah Hunt and Tiffanie Moreno. Both casts had been rehearsing since September to learn the choreography and refine their performances.
"WhoDunnit?" is a narrative murder mystery dance laced with campy humor. Von Eberstein went into the conference with an open mind about how her work might be received. “Getting the opportunity to receive feedback from the adjudicators was so fulfilling, yet surprising. Since my dance lives heavily in the world of dance theatre, I didn't know how it would be received at a large dance conference, but to my surprise, it received so much positive feedback. It was more than I could’ve ever hoped for,” says von Eberstein.
After all the schools performed and received feedback on their choreography, the adjudicators curated a final performance on the last day called the gala concert. The dances chosen represented the most outstanding work from the conference. The Â鶹ӳ» students were honored to have von Eberstein’s "WhoDunnit?" selected for this year’s gala.
“The gala performance is a general ‘best-of-the-best.’ Out of 34 dances, only 10 are selected to be re-presented, and they represent the standouts from the week. Generally, being selected tells the other schools in your region that you offer a choreographic perspective that’s worth seeing,” notes Associate Teaching Professor of Dance Nate Hodges.
Upon hearing the news that her work would be featured in the gala, von Eberstein says, “I was filled with so much pride for what we had created, and finding out that we had made it into the gala was just the cherry on top of a fantastic week filled with so much dance and joy.”
The conference offers an intensive environment, with students taking classes all day and performing or attending performances into the evenings. Hodges adds, “ACDA offers the incredible opportunity to take classes from dance professionals and academics from all over the region, learning styles and approaches that they may never normally be exposed to. These experiences can be eye-opening and affect the way students think of their work, their technique and their dance community.”
Reflecting on the importance of these kinds of experiences for students, Cunningham says, “One of the biggest benefits of our students attending ACDA is to really get a sense of what it means to study dance at the college level and gain an appreciation of the expansiveness of the field.”
