For the third consecutive time, students from the Maggie Allesee Department of Dance at Wayne State University were honored by the National American College Dance Festival (ACDFA). On June 1, 2004 the Wayne State Dance Company took center stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC as the finale to the evening's Gala Concert.

As one of only 30 premiere dance institutions in the U.S. invited to perform, the Wayne State Dance Company staged a dance titled "Hairstories" (2001) by award-winning choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Zollar is artistic director of the New York-based Urban Bush Women professional dance company and served as Winter 2004 Allesee Dance Artist- in-Residence at Wayne State, during which the WSU dancers learned her high-energy choreography that fuses dance, music, spoken-word storytelling and video. "Hairstories" draws upon the spiritual traditions, cultural heritage and vast history of African-Americans by channeling issues surrounding women's experiences with their own hair. Even the hair types of the WSU dancers themselves are woven into the stories told via the dance suite. It is a live stage documentary-esque dance, which includes music by James Brown and Parliament Funkedelic.

Led by WSU dance faculty and company directors, Kelly Gottesman and Linda Cleveland Simmons, eleven WSU dancers spent five days in the nation's capital. Each day of the festival presented the students with once in a lifetime opportunities, including masterclasses with renowned dance faculty, gala dance performances from universities across the nation and other exciting events in Washington celebrating the students' remarkable accomplishments.

ACDFA is the foremost adjudicating organization in collegiate dance. The organization's biennial national festival is seen as the culmination of the most exemplary dance in higher education. "Thousands of young dancers across the country attend the event and benefit from viewing dozens of dances, listening to the wisdom of distinguished adjudicators and appreciating the creative energy of fellow dancers and choreographers," Simmons said. Simmons organized the Great Lakes Region ACDFA festival in March, hosted by Wayne State University and attended by over 700 dance students from colleges and universities throughout the mid-west.

Immediately following the WSU performance at the Kennedy Center, Doug Risner, chair of the Maggie Allesee Department of Dance, hosted a special reception for the students and important guests at the Watergate Hotel, including Maggie Allesee, newly appointed CFPCA Dean Sharon Vasquez and Associate Provost Jack Kay. The following morning, the dancers were honored with a special breakfast at the Capitol hosted by Marda Robillard, Assistant Vice President, WSU's Office of Federal Affairs. Students visited with members of the Michigan congressional delegation and toured the Capitol. Before leaving, the students were treated with office visits with Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow and Detroit Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick. "For this, our third ACDFA trip to Washington, DC, I felt that the dance department's exceptional accomplishments, especially the outstanding talents and efforts of our students, needed to be a very special one. We wanted to plan a trip they will always remember when they leave Wayne State," Risner said.

The Maggie Allesee Department of Dance, celebrating 75 years of dance at Wayne State University, is a vital division of Wayne State's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts. Wayne State University, located in the heart of Detroit's cultural center, is a premier institution of higher education, offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students.