“Maida Withers’ love of risk and the unknown has led her and us through dozens of daring choreographic expeditions over the past decade…less interested in charming spectators than in prodding them into unexpected modes of perception, she’s always preferred to take a grand leap into the abyss than an easy swim across the pool.   Stall. is challenging — no less to the audience than to the dancers; it’s also bold in conception, at once stark and vivid in atmosphere, and mammoth in dimension. …Though the thread of a distinctive personal vision runs through all of Withers’ works, no two of them are ever quite alike.” October 22, 1981  Alan Kriegsman, Washington Post

Stall. an evening-length collaborative performance features a rotating loudspeaker and sound installation by John Driscoll, composer/sculptor, with Phil Edelstein, rotating loudspeaker animation, and Maida Withers, choreographer, with the Dance Construction Company. This  dialogue between art and science presents an innovative work integrating art, music, dance, and electronic technology. A rotating loudspeaker set, suspended above the dance space, creates dynamic movement patterns which are sympathetic to the motion of the dancers and which disperses sound into the space taking advantage of the resonant and reflective characteristics of the performance space and interacts with four peripheral speakers creating a sonic architecture.  The dance, built on complex and running sequences of motion in a large circle on the peripheral edge of the stage, is compelling and driving in its character.  The somewhat futurist appearance of the dance coupled with the power of the music and the severity of the rotating loudspeaker set gives Stall. its feeling of high technology drama.

*Stall. Funded, in part by National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Arts in Performing Arts.

(1981) May 4  thru May 22
Stall.  Three week artist-in-residence program with Akademia der  Künste, West Berlin, Germany  to create the new work – Stall.  Generous support was provided by Director, Nele Herling.

(1981) May 22 @ 22:30 pm
Stall.  World Premiere
65 minutes continuous performance
Akademia der Künste Festival of Pantomine, Music, Dance, and Theater Festival at Ausstellungshalle (Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, in short, the Bundeskunsthalle),  West Berlin, Germany.

(1981)  October 20 @ 8:00 pm
Stall.  American Premiere
65 minutes continuous performance
Washington Performing Arts Society’s 9th Street Crossings Festival in the historic Pension Building (National Register of Historic Places) currently National Building Museum, Washington, DC.
Note:  9th Street Crossing Festival included performances by distinguished artists – Philip Glass, David Behrman, Laurie Anderson, Lucinda Childs, Robert Ashley, and Maida Withers.

(1982) June 12 and 13 (see below)
Emanu-El Midtown YM-YWHA – 344 E 14th Street, New York, NY assisted by Dance Theater Workshop, Inc.

“Stall. is a fine representation of Maida’s extensive work in collaboration and experimentation.  Maida is a highly visible artist in Washington, DC who continues to delight and surprise audiences with her evening long works which combine dance with the visual and performing arts.  She is a prolific choreographer and daring in her work with other artists and spaces.”

Stall.   Dance Construction Company / Rotating Loudspeaker / John Driscoll, Music / Phil Edelstein, Loudspeaker Animation / National Building Museum, Washington, DC

Rotating Loudspeaker, suspended above the dancers at center stage, creates dynamic movement pattern which are sympathetic to the circular structure and distinctive motion of the dancers. Phil Edelstein works closely with John Driscoll through animation. The speakers are one unit that rotates both left and right at different speeds, stopping when directed, during Stall., to engage with loudspeakers positioned in four corners of the large building space (USA). Midway through the performance, dancers stop dancing (exit) and the rotating loudspeakers perform (see performance video 19:55 to 26:02). The instrumental loudspeaker disperses sound into the space and takes advantage of the resonant and reflective characteristics of the performance space.  Sound images, created by the interaction of the space and the rotating loudspeaker, combine with music for four peripheral speakers making an acoustical phenomena which could be described as a sonic architecture.  The preferred space is an open architectural space where the audience surrounds the dance space and is located between the rotating loudspeaker and the peripheral sound field.

Dance / Choreography & Performance:

Dancers:  Dale Crittenberger and Maida Withers

Stall.
Choreography, by Maida Withers with the Dance Construction Company, is built on a circular structure requiring extreme stamina since the choreography is built on a continuous running base with formal structure in the choreography.  Danced, in America, by Francis Babb, Dale Crittenberger, Wendell Lockhart, Heather Tuck, and Maida Withers; Light Design by William DeMull; and Costume Design by Beth Burkhardt.
Dancers:  Francis Babb; Maida Withers, Dale Crittenberger

Stall.   October 20, 1981, premiered in the United States in Washington, DC in Washington Performing Arts Society’s 9th Street Crossings Festival in the historic Pension Building (National Register of Historic Places) currently National Building Museum.  Doug Wheeler, WPAS, produced the USA premiere  and hosted a pre-concert dinner at the Pension Building for special guests and donors prior to the performance of Stall. (photo below)

Fund Raising Dinner Event – Washington Performing Arts Society, sponsor:
Elvi Moore, Eric Withers, Maida Withers, Marc Withers, Doug Wheeler

Dancers:  Francis Babb and Dale Crittenberger

ARTIST CREDITS: 
Stall. an evening length collaborative performance of dance, sound sculpture, and music (1981) 9th Street Crossing Festival, Washington, DC
Maida Withers, choreography
John Driscoll, composer/sculptor,  rotating loudspeaker installation concept and design
Phil Edelstein, rotating loudspeaker animation
Dance Construction Company dancers, Frances Babb, Dale Crittenberger, Heather Tuck, Maida Withers, Wendell Lockhart
Maida Withers, costumes
William (Bill) DeMull,  light design
Michael Moser, videographer
Dennis Deloria, photographer

 Photo Credits:  Dennis Deloria, noted Washington photographer

Dancers:  Frances Babb, Maida Withers

Rotating Loudspeaker by John Driscoll: Dancers: Brook Andrews, Maida Withers (rehearsal)
Dancers:  Frances Babb, Maida Withers, Dale Crittenberger

Rotating Loud Speaker:  John Driscoll; Dancers: Maida Withers, Brook Andrews, rehearsal

Dancers:  Maida Withers, Frances Babb

Dancers:  Dale Crittenberger, Frances Babb

 Dancers: Frances Babb and Dale CrittenbergerDancers:  Dale Crittenberger, Maida Withers, Frances Babb

Dancers:  Dale Crittenberger, Frances Babb

Dancers:  Dale Crittenberger, Frances Babb, Maida Withers

Dancers:  Dale Crittenberger, Maida Withers, Frances Babb

Finale:  Heather Tuck, Wendell Lockhart, Maida Withers, Dale Crittenberger, Frances Babb

AUDIO LINKS (John Driscoll, Composer):
Akademie der Kunste Audio Link, Berlin, Germany: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/khnc50m21zsxcbqz45185/AAuL9rDJm0COIHq8lKdJyJQ?rlkey=plugly6oufh6qvxv1eipof7re&dl=0

Pension Building (National Building Museum), Washington, DC:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/8sw130qmht23eoa3p1658/AHyv7xezNGIJhNoGDOTtY30?rlkey=qgsl2gdypdiijk4fpjy4ty8m7&dl=0

Note: Pension Bldg audio recordings are on different dates. The recordings are in .wav format but can be  convert to another format if needed.

Stall:  Performances of choreography with no rotating loudspeaker.
(1982) June 12 – 13  Emanu-El Midtown “Y” Concert, New York City, New York in a shared program with Dance Construction Company’s Families Are Forever.  Dance Theatre Workshop and David White, Founder, assisted with the presentation of Maida Withers Dance Construction Company in New York City.

(1982) June 16 – 18  George Washington University Summer Dance Artist’s Concert, Dorothy Betts Marvin Theater, downtown Washington, DC. The rotating loudspeaker was not present in this performance. An unusual neon sculpture, created by Margery Goldberg, noted Washington visual artist and curator, was featured in Stall.

What the press is saying

"Picture the dance scene without Maida Withers - how much duller, drier and shorter on surprise the last decade would have been. It was Withers who took the lead in shaking us up, startling us with new ideas and new methods, bullying us into questioning every assumption or received notion. It was Withers, very largely, who brought us into contact with the artistic turmoil of the late '60s and '70s, both by importations from the outside and by example in her own work. Then, as today, she was our prime evangelist of the novel and strange byways of dance, a tireless advocate of causes, aesthetic and otherwise, and a human juggernaut in the force of her wit, stamina and intelligence." Alan M. Kriegsman

"Maida Withers' love of risk and the unknown has led her and us through dozens of daring choreographic expeditions over the past decade...less interested in charming spectators than in prodding them into unexpected modes of perception, she's always preferred to take a grand leap into the abyss than an easy swim across the pool Stall. is challenging -- no less to the audience than to the dancers; it's also bold in conception, at once stark and vivid in atmosphere, and mammoth in dimension. ...Though the thread of a distinctive personal vision runs through all of Withers' works, no two of them are ever quite alike." October 22, 1981 Alan Kriegsman, Washington Post

"The sense of interruption- it's not stop, and it's not a start, but something in between, like the gliding into position of the rotating speaker." Alan M. Kriegsman

The dancing is a compelling play on sequences of motion. Motion and sound which work together to first fill the roo..then envelope it . . . Turning faster and faster. Stall. could be called "Sound sculpture - the space inherent in sound. TAGESSPIEGEL - 27 May, 1981

"The 'sonic architecture' disperses through space propelling the continuous flow of Withers' choreography. Circular patterns emerge, broken by large reaches toward the center, loops of the legs, bodies that knot and untangle."

"'Unlike some of my previous works," she says of 'Stall,' 'this is entirely non-improvisational. In fact, it is organized to a hairsbreadth of exact connections. I tried in this piece to be more austere and hypnotic." Noel Gillespie

"She's been called the iconoclast of Washington dance." Webster's defines iconoclast as "one who destroys cherished beliefs and traditions." "Destroy" is perhaps too strong a word. When applied to Withers, the definition might better read "one who tests the limits of established tradition, and goes beyond"
"Even though much of her work contains large doses of social commentary, it also can stand alone on the movement. The core of the work is movement… the sheer joyous exploration of how motion leads into motion, even when accompanied by silence." Carol Wonsavage

"There seemed to be cave and underwater reverberations. Choreographic development was akin to organic growth, including its imperfections." George Jackson

""Stall' is dance for pure kinesthetic enjoyment. It is a driving work, an hour long, which thrusts, turns, flows, and falls through space… Maida Withers is a dancers who dares to throw herself to the very edge of possibility in every movement, and Frances Babb was the epitome of the word exquisite." Frances Wessells

"Dale Crittenden (error - Crittenberger), on loan from the Dance Construction Company, performed his solo from Maida Withers' Stall., demonstrating effortless spins, limber splits and clear and masterful dancing throughout." Alexandra Tomalonis

a "forty-four-year-old human juggernaut in the force of wit, stamina, and intelligence." "tall and rangy" woman with the "face of a wagonmistress, an incredible shock of charcoal-ash hair with limbs as long as her body, choreographer, company director, impresario, prophetess, teacher." Michael A. Kriegsman

"It is a pity Ms. Wither's brilliant collaboration of dance, semi-improvised music, and dramatic lighting and shadows, seen at the U.S. Pension Building, was presented only once. It is the finest yet ofher many strong efforts over the last few years and deseres an audience beyond D.C. She was in top dancing form as were Frances Babb and Dale Crittenberger."

"Stall (is) challenging -- no less to the audience than to the dancers: it's also bold in conception, at once stark and vivid in atmosphere, and mammoth in dimension."

"In a sense, the Pension Building interior was itself a formidable collaborator. The vastness of the space and the awesome scale of its colonnaded galleries, suggesting both Roman grandeur and gothic mystery, turned the place into a combination set, sounding board, and phantasmagorical canyon."

"Though the thread of a distinctive personal vision runs through all of Withers' works, no two of them are ever quite alike, and 'Sall' is no exception -- it's one of a kind." Alan M. Kriegsman