Nearly 500 dancers representing 44 schools and eight states from around the country will flood SF State this January to dance, perform and network with their peers.

The Southwestern conference of the American College Dance Festival will be held at SF State Jan. 17 through Jan. 20. The annual festival allows dancers, faculty and choreographers to meet with others from around the country and be reviewed by nationally recognized judges.

SF State will have its first opportunity to host the festival since it started in 1973 – and to show off its dance department and the Bay Area dance community.

“This is a huge deal, because nobody really realizes what a rich dance community we have here in the Bay Area,” said Amber Zuckswert, 21, a senior dance major. “Hosting this event gives us the chance to show off our school and the area in general.”

The festival will kick off Jan. 17 with an opening gala performance. Cathleen McCarthy, a dance lecturer at SF State, has recruited several professional dance companies from around the Bay Area – such as ODC/San Francisco, Smuin Ballet, and Robert Moses’ Kin – to perform in the opening concert, an added bonus for those attending. Many of the performers in the opening gala are SF State faculty and/or alumni.

“This concert will be a real treat for the visiting schools,” said McCarthy, who is choreographing and performing in the concert. “We’re calling it ‘Destination: Dance SF’ because we really want students to think about their destinations in dance and in life.”

The weekend of dance includes four informal concerts, where students can show off their work to their peers, and four adjudicated concerts, where selected works are performed for judges. The judges will pick 10 to 12 of the best pieces, which will be shown in a final gala performance Jan. 20. There will also be a variety of dance classes, lectures, films and seminars with dance critics.

Tiffany Yee, co-director of the University Dance Theater, the student-run company at SF State along with Zuckswert, is excited about the opportunities for dancers from around the region to be able to see what’s in store in the future for the dance world.

“It will show us what dancers our age are doing and really is a showcase for the next generation of choreographers,” Yee, 20, said. “It’s really amazing to see how creative and moving these pieces can be, even with such young choreographers and dancers. You can’t imagine the depth in the works.”

Dancers and faculty alike are mainly excited for the exposure the festival will provide for SF State’s dance department.

“This will give us a tremendous amount of visibility,” McCarthy said.

Zuckswert agreed.

“We’re not known as a dance school, so it’s really nice to get some recognition,” she said. “It’s important to get us on the map, and we might even recruit some transfers from other schools if they see how good our department actually is.”

Yee and Zuckswert are two of seven dancers performing in a piece choreographed by Alex Ketley, a well-known former dancer with San Francisco Ballet who now owns his own professional contemporary company.

The piece will be performed for the festival’s judges, and it could be selected for the gala performance. At least two other works choreographed by SF State students will be included in the festival, one of which will be performed for the judges.

Aside from the chance to mingle with other dancers and show off their talent, the festival may also provide a glimpse at job opportunities for the students.

“All the schools have choreographers and teachers coming, and it’s a perfect chance to see what’s out there, to see who you might want to dance with in the future,” Zuckswert said.

“There are so many who come to teach, perform and watch,” Yee said. “If some of us want to pursue this as a career, there are all these possibilities right there that we might be able to work with.”