Top Honors for SSU Dance Program

Dance students from the SSU Dance Program received top honors at the regional ACDFA (American College Dance Festival) held at UC Irvine recently. SSU was selected from a field of 47 dances from Universities throughout California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii to perform in the final Gala Concert.

At the yearly Southwest Regional Festival of ACDFA, a panel of nationally and internationally respected dance professionals adjudicates and selects dances for the Gala Concert. This year, out of a total of 47 dances that were performed, 12 were chosen for the showcase performance on the final night of the festival.  Matter of Influence, performed by 9 dance students from SSU, was one of those selected.  It was a thrilling and well deserved honor to be on the same program with top dance programs from prestigious dance schools such as UC Irvine, Chapman University, CSU Long Beach, Loyola Marymount University, Arizona State University, says Dance Professor Nancy Lyons.

Matter of Influence, the dance performed by SSU dancers, was created for the students in February by guest artist Claire Porter, a former dancer from the Sonoma State Dance Program who has gone on to a distinguished career as an internationally acclaimed dancer based in the New York City area.  She was in residency at SSU for two weeks at the beginning of the spring semester when she taught an intensive workshop with the students, creating Matter of Influence, an 11-minute dance, in a total of 8 rehearsals.

SSU Dance Students and their two dance faculty, Kristen Daley and Nancy Lyons, have been attending the ACDFA conference for four years.  Students take classes, attend performances, lectures and adjudication panels throughout the four-day festival.  It is an excellent opportunity to meet other students and faculty throughout the Southwest Region, see and discuss work from a broad diversity of dance programs.  This is the first year SSU has received the honor of being selected to be on the Gala Concert.