Iwona Olszowska
Dance Construction Company:
Dancer in Halda
Dancer in Dance of the Auroras – Fire in the Sky
Iwona: Professional dancer, performer, dance teacher, Somatic Movement Educator in Poland. In summer, 1977, Iwona was one of four professional dancers in the work, Halda: A Mound of Waste, for four female Polish dancers from the Eksperymentalne Studio Tanca in Kracow, Poland. Maida Withers was commissioned to create a new work by Jacek Luminsky and Slaski Teatre Tanca for the 1997 international Dance Conference and Festival in Bytom, Poland. Visual artists, Fivenotten Group, designed the set, a patch of green grass, a pole in the ground with a long pole balanced on top for dancers to move and hand from during the performance. Original music was created and performed by a Grzegorz Jedrzcjowski.
Iwona travelled to St. Petersburg where Maida created a trio for Iwona, Polish dancer, Sasha Kukin, Russian dancer/choreographer, and Vincent Cacalano, American dancer, commissioned by Open Look Festival. Iwona and Sasha premiered PART III Dance of Auroras at the Dukabrezkov Theatre. Iwona and Sasha continued in the USA for the world premiere of Dance of the Auroras – Fire in the Sky in Washington, DC at Lisner Auditorium (see video).
Letter from Iwona to Maida Withers in 2025:
December 9, 2025
Dear Maida
I am so sorry I only answer now. Recently I rarely check mail box..Somehow technology kicked me out. I am retired since 24 January, but was still teaching at Academy in Lodz. but only in 5 weeks modules every semester. My Parents are older now. So I rather stay with them. So I was cancelling some workshop events during and after vacation.I still teach in Cracow Body Mind Centering, and Once a month for Choreography course. Hm about the performances, be honest with You I am not sure but I guess music (for the quartet in Bytom) was alive. Being part of Halda Was great experience for me. It was new to me work site specyfic , with some subject. I rememebr atmosphere of the piece…bricks in hands, air in hair…our circle movement around…colors…
Aurora was amazing experience both rehearsing and performing, specifically was done for life music making chills on my skin…also being part of project… meeancers was great experience…
Performing in DC in Gallery was another great event.
Free moving structure… spaces… reacting… being…joining…being still. observing…watching…
Thank You Maida for alll that beautiful work together…
Thank You for invitation.
For now I am not traveling so much specially for longer , because of Parents condition…
But I hope to meet You one day…again… would be great
Big Hug
Dnia 08 listopada 2025 00:51
m.withers@verizon.net – Maida letter to Iwona 2025:
Hello, my dear friend.
Just guessing ….maybe your old emails will work….just made up a gmail address.
I miss you. I am working on my archives every day for three to four hours. It is a pleasure. I am on maidadance.com….because I posted each new work when I was making it (got the web page in 2014).
I enjoy watching you in Russia when we first did the duet when Vincent drank untreated water so he could not dance in the trio…..the beginning of a long lasting duet instead with you and Sasha.
I just opened the web page on HALDA: A Mound of Waste the quartet where I met you. What a great lucky meeting for me….to get to know you.
I have a brilliant dancer working on the archives….it is long and tedious work.
Could you check to see if I have made mistakes, could you please send me suggested corrections. What did I leave out that is important????
Iwona, do you remember if the music was played live for all three performances.
Do you remember any specific names (more than I have included) for the performances….?
“If you want me to quote you….write me a sentence about dancing Halda???”
I have been doing a big project in Ukraine. Anton Ovchinnikov (Ukrainian I met in Moscow ages ago in a dance improvisation class I was teaching). We commissioned four female dancers to create each a site work (two still live in Ukraine: one lives in Italy with her husband and children; one single dancer lives now and is dancing in Finland.) The Trust for Mutual Understanding paid for music composition for each and also creating a video of each. Trust died last year but is going to start up again (the Female funder ….a Rockefellar women funded them died…so they stopped for a year). Maybe Anton and I can do the next part which is a big event for a museum in Ukraine. I am afraid Trump will not help in Ukraine….seems like a big problem for him….COWARD at heart…easier to travel around the world and claim victories than really win a fight……
Please come see me in Washington, DC. That would be fabulous. Catch me up at least on line. If you ever see Jacek, please give him my deepest regards….
Love….and thank you if you can help at all.
Any remembrances about the work would be great as I build more into the web page that will eventually be an Archive.
Missing you…….
Maida
https://maidadance.com/works/halda-a-mound-of-waste/