Note: longer video tape available – Maida Withers Dance Construction Company Archive

“Maida Withers, Washington, DC performer, choreographer, and filmmaker, proposes to be part of the Take it To the Bridge Series at the Corcoran Gallelry of Art with THIS SPACE OCCUPIED (by Maida), a new interactive performance of structured improvisaton and a temporary installation.”

(2012) CONFIRM THE YEAR ? September 15, 11 A.M. to 4 P.M.   This Space Occupied (by Maida), a 5-hour endurance event performed by Maida Withers, dancer/performance artist, with Steve Hilmy, electronic composer-musician.  Maida performed in the elevated glass entrance way to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, historic Flagg Building, in downtown Washington, DC.  The performance, featuring notions and realities of the Occupy Movement, was commissioned by the Washington Project for the Arts and the Corcoran Gallery of Art as part of Take It to the Bridge Series. Audience members could ask Maida questions via a public microphone available in the lobby. Maida would/could choose to carry on a dialogue then (or not) on global issues related to “occupy.”

Program Note:
Maida Withers, with composer Steve Hilmy, reveals the precariousness of life in the glass cage in This Space Occupied – a 5-hour stream of consciousness event inspired by notions of the Occupy movement.  This endurance event is an interactive performance of structured improvisation and  stream of consciousness choices by Maida Withers, internationally recognized dance artist, and Steve Hilmy, award winning electronic composer and musician.  The elevated glass entryway at the Corcoran is transformed through dance, choreography, text and memory.  The artist interacts with the audience through direct verbal conversation with patrons asking Maida questions via the microphone. Note: Five blocks from the Corcoran, men and women were physically testing the right of citizens to occupy the public park along K street in downtown Washington, DC.

*Luba Kusovnikova – Russian scholar and innovator developed a summer arts program on Solovky Island in Russia, on the White Sea, home of the incredibly famous 14th century monastery.   During the residency, artists gathered, by invitation, under Kusovnikova’s leadership, to create art works with building materials abandoned on the Island.  One of the earliest Soviet Era GULAGS was established on Solovky Island.  Withers met Luba in Russia and suggested, perhaps, her next summer workshop on Solovky Island could be dance with invitations to dancers in Russia, Finland, and even the USA.  This wish came about!   View video footage of Withers and Gongora performing “Dance in the Dungeon,” in the Monastery during the summer residency.

This Space Occupied was performed in the following international festivals:

Barents SPEKTAKEL (2013) February ?  *Kirkenes, Norway. This Space Occupied performance was supported, in part, by the U.S. Embassy, Oslo, Norway.
Luba Kusovnikova* produced the annual Barents SPEKTAKEL, an annual event sponsored by the King of Norway (see note below). Wither’s performance was in a storefront window with the audience standing outside in the dark and freezing Norway winter setting of snow, ice, and cold in the dark.  Steve Hilmy performed electronic music, inside the store, viewed by the audience through the “front of store” window.  *Kirkenes lies on a peninsula along the Bøkfjorden, an arm of the large Varangerfjorden, and is located just a few kilometres from the Norway–Russia border.

Visoes Urbanas Festival  (2013)  March ?  São Paulo, Brazil – Visoes Urbanas International Street Festival, directed by Mirtes Calheiros and Ederson Lopez through CIA Artesaos do Corpo Teatro Dance organization.  This Space Occupied performance took place in the amazing  São Paulo, Brazil Museum of Image and Sound (MIS). (See photos below).

Locate:  video footage on Solovky Island and photographs.

Promotional Photos by Shaun Schroth, Washington, DC

Take It To The Bridge photos, below, Corcoran Gallery of Art Flagg Entrance:

Steve Hilmy, Composer/Musician, Photos Above
CHANGE THIS PHOTO….THIS IS NOT IN THE MUSEUM…..

Photos Below: Maida Withers


Photos below:  São Paulo, Brazil, Museum of Media and Sound.  Visoes Urbanas International Street Festival. (2013)

Photos Below:  Museum of Image and Sound, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2013) Photos at Museum of Image and Sound (MIS), Sao Paulo, Brazil. (3/23/2013)
Regrettably there are no photos of the Barent’s Spektakel.

Video documentation available, four/five hours: Maida Withers Dance Construction Company Archives.

What the press is saying

Maida Withers, Washington, DC, performer, choreographer, and filmmaker, working with composer Steve Hilmy, reveals the precariousness of life in the glass cage in a 5-hour stream of consciousness event inspired by notions of the Occupy Movement. Washington Project for the Arts & Corcoran Gallery of Art