In a room scented with sweat and filled with students from over a dozen schools, Moorpark College dancers waited to perform and show the nation how talented they are.

The dancers attended classes in hip-hop, yoga, jazz, tango, ballet, and much more for an annual dance competition hosted this year at Sacramento State University.

“I got to experience different types of dance I’m not used to seeing,” said Moorpark College student Katie Norman, 21. “I learned to appreciate them. It’s a really good experience even if you’re not a dance major.”

Moorpark College students gathered in Sacramento with over 30 schools from California, Oregon and Arizona from March 15 to March 18 to participate in the American College Dance Festival Association. The ACDFA is an annual dance competition and convention that began in 1973. In addition to competitions in choreography, four classes were offered daily that featured various genres of dance for students to immerse themselves in.

Around eight of these conventions are held at various schools and the winners of all these will proceed to the national competition in Washington DC where dancers will compete for scholarships and other prizes.

The MC students performed “Salted with Fire”, a dance choreographed by guest artist Holly Johnson, and “Bode”, a dance choreographed by MC faculty member Robert Salas.

Three concerts of about 15 dances each were shown and three winning pieces were chosen by judges Gus Solomons Jr., Paz Tanjuaquio and Gretchen Ward Warren. The winning universities included Cal State Long Beach, Chapman and Cal State Fresno.

This was Moorpark College’s second consecutive year attending the festival.