Oakland welcomed 28 university dance programs in the East-Central Conference Feb. 20- 23 for the 40th American College Dance Festival Association.

More than 400 students were in attendance at the events.

Throughout the course of ACDFA, students were offered classes every day and auditions were held for summer intensives and scholarship programs.

Students showcased their work to three judges — Randy Duncan, Gerri Houlihan and Heidi Latsky.

They attended feedback sessions to hear the judges opinions on their work.

“ACDFA is a way for us to still sort of compete with each other. It’s a place for us to showcase our work and our dancing and our version of dance in 2013,” said Alex Plaskey, senior and president of the student organization for the dance program.

Gregory Patterson, associate director of dance, said preparations for ACDFA began in September.

“The kids were amazing, we couldn’t have done it without them,” Debra Bernstein-Siegel, full-time dance adjunct instructor in dance said.

Siegel attended the very first ACDFA hosted by the University of Pittsburgh in 1973, when she was a senior at Ohio State University.

“At the time, we didn’t even know what ACDFA was, we just thought it was cool we got to perform outside of our college,” Siegel said.

As host, Oakland added a couple of elements to celebrate the anniversary.

“Throughout the conference, we had a 40th anniversary class series which was one class that represented each decade of dance in the past 40 years. We had a disco jazz class, and 90s Twyla Tharp class and a Horton class. We also created the dance across America challenge,” Plaskey said.

The challenge is a video flash mob that featured 12 different universities that attended ACDFA.

Plaskey collaborated with Wayne State dance major, Megan Drabant to create the challenge.

“It’s a good feeling to see full classes, and packed theaters to let you know you’re doing a good job,” he said.