DETROIT – Sitting in your seat watching a dance performance, have you ever wondered what it really takes to put a dance piece together? Long rehearsals, sore muscles, and choreographic changes are only the beginning.

The Maggie Allesee Department of Dance presents the first annual fall dance concert, Dances in the Making: An Evening of Works in Progress, November 2nd and 3rd, at 8 pm.

The concert features nine dance works choreographed by faculty, guest artists and students. Each dance will be presented in its current state along with demonstrations and dialogue from the choreographers and performers exposing the choreographic process. The fall concert is the first of its kind initiating collaborations with other departments from the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, including the Art and Art History Department, and the Theatre Department. Alana Bartol, a current MFA student in Sculpture at WSU, says the collaborations include a sound installation, various performance art works and an ongoing sculptural installation taking place on stage. These partnerships will help expand the reach of all art forms, not only at Wayne State, but also across Michigan.

Beautiful Otherness, choreographed by Ron DeJesus, formerly of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Movin’ Out, will present his beautifully choreographed ballet featuring Wayne State adjunct faculty Samantha Shelton. The ballet was commissioned for the Stars of Ballet and Broadway 2006 by Meg Paul, Director of Dance at the Music Hall.

Dance Workshop, the WSU Dance Department’s BFA dance company, will present works in progress choreographed by members of the company, Martha Dobbs, Rachael Harbert and Rachel Swykert. Harbert and Swykert’s Kardia embodies the idea of the human heart and develops an abstract concept through the use of movement supported by breath while incorporating dynamic partnering. Dobbs’ Things Hoped For holds a strong emotional connection to a positive aspect of life that was introduced through real life events; no matter how bad things might seem, there is always something to hope for.

The Dough is Brown and the Gouda’s Oozing, choreographed by Assistant Professor Jeff Michael Rebudal, is a high-energy modern dance piece set to imitate the life of the mythological phoenix. Megan Brunke, adjunct faculty and Dance Workshop Co-Director presents a neoclassical work, Westminster Variations, combining ballet and modern technique with a classical approach.

Choreographer Edgar Page\'s, A Picture in Time Magazine uses raw emotion to blazon a reaction, an answer regarding information we see concerning world issues everyday. It is a simplistic tale that breaks down societal and cultural issues to a more humanistic and natural manner.

Lauren Cansler, a current BFA student in the WSU Dance department, has made a new piece entitled Y= MX+B, an experiment blending her background in the Lester Horton Technique and mathematics. She has provided a great deal of intensity through simplistic but strong movement phrases.

Old Souls: Breath of the Ancestors, is a Dunham style modern piece, set by Fall 2007Allesee Artist-in-Residence, Penny Godboldo of Marygrove College. Godboldo challenged her students to connect with their ancient ancestors through the Dunham technique. Holding a Dunham technique class before each rehearsal prepared and strengthened the students for the taxing demands of the work.

The Freshmen Improvisation class will be presenting an untitled sturctured improvisation under the direction of Associate Professor Eva Powers. Given minimal direction, the students will dance using space and body awareness to create movement that builds and recaps on what they have learned so far this semester. The overall participation and collaboration of all the students in each performance will reflect the beginning stages of composing a dance work.

Dances in the Making: An Evening of Works in Progress is presented at the WSU Bonstelle Theatre located at 3424 Woodward Avenue. Tickets are $12 pre sale, $15 for general admission and $6 for students and senior citizens.

The Maggie Allesee Department of Dance is one of 60 exemplary dance institutions accredited by the National Association of Schools of Dance and is a vital division of Wayne State 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.

For additional information and advance sales contact the Maggie Allesee Department of Dance at 313.577.4273 or visit www.dance.wayne.edu