AUBURN - There was a tangible sense of anticipation in the air as Sean McLeod, executive producer of the New York Institute of Dance & Education gathered together more than 30 performers before they took the stage for “A Day in Dance” Friday night.

McLeod reassured all the performers, from the youngest to the most seasoned, that no matter what happened the show would go on.

“There is a saying that the people you share your greatest successes with,” McLeod said, “you also share your greatest pain, sorrow and fear. For the last two weeks we have all lived together, sweated together and we have shared all of that#8

“A Day in Dance” is a portion of the N.Y.I.D.E.'s New York Dance Festival, which began in 1990, when McLeod invited Thomas Warfield and Roxanna Young to do some instruction with the Kaleidoscope Dance Theater.

This went on for several years, until 1999, when the New York Dance Festival was officially founded. Since then the event has grown to incorporate a variety of components, including a two week dance intensive course, a drum festival and a portion focusing in on musical theater.

Over the course of these past few weeks the students participating in the program have been given instruction in a variety of styles, including ballet, tap to hip-hop.

Along the way the instructors of highly talented performers from all over the world, tried to instill in their students that dance is about more than the moves or the timing of the steps.

“We have done a lot of dance,” Thomas Warfield, associate director of “A Day in Dance,” said. “But we have also done a lot of talking and a lot of sharing. We have been working on expressing ourselves verbally and that has been an ongoing thing and a fun thing.”

And for many of the students a point that truly hit home.

“I realized that we can connect with pieces,” Nicole Lovier, 18, of Liverpool, said. “We really made an emotional connection. I actually cried and that is the great thing about being here, you can feel comfortable to do that.”

McLeod, Warfield and the other instructors worked with their students, helping them to create their own performances for the event.

“It has been intense,” Warfield said. “We start at eight in the morning and go until five thirty at night. It has been an intense time, but I think everyone here has really learned a lot for this whole experience of all of us working together.”

It is this environment that has brought students back year after year.

“It just gets better every year,” said Ryan MacConnell, 17, of Chittenango. “We have the greatest teachers, from New York City, from Africa, from all over the world. It is amazing.”

The evening began with the students taking the stage to perform about a half dozen pieces with choreography by choreographic apprentice, Jerami Kipp of SUNY Purchase.

“We didn't have a lot of time to work on them,” Mariah Atkinson, 16, of Pompey, said. “There is a lot we are going out there and doing cold, but considering that I think we are ready.”

The ability to adapt to whatever situation may occur on the stage, is a big part of what students learn.

“We learned to go with the flow,” Devon McLeod, 13, of Auburn, said. “Whatever happens, happens, that is one of the great things we learned.”

Warfield explained, “Some of us were here until at least two last night. But this is all about team work and learning and learning the life lessons that dance is all about, creating a community and making those connections with others, that is really what this is all about.”