OBSESSION:  AMERICA’S OBSESSION WITH SEX

Early Premiere:  Publick Playhouse – Maryland National Capital Park
(1986) December 4, 5, 6   Obsession – A “made in USA” look at sex (locate video – MRW as Elvis)

Premiere: Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC.
(1987) April 24 Evening length performance in 2 parts:
Part I:  Elvis Presley / religion impact – gender transformation
Part II:  AIDS / human crisis  (See ORBIT film excerpts: https://vimeo.com/7691282) Department of Human Kinetics and Leisure Studies and Dance Production Groups support.

Evening-length performance makes commentary on the sexual revolution starting with the Elvis Presley generation.   This “Made in the USA” view of sex, created by Maida Withers, is performed by Maida Withers Dance Construction Company with Nuvieux Music Ensemble Obsession premier: Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC.

OBSESSION:  AMERICA’S OBSESSION WITH SEX
Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, April 24, 1987
Part I: Elvis Presley as the bridge for men and women to be openly expressive on views about sex. Elvis Blue Suide Shoes solo danced, originally, by Greg Simeone.
Part II: Abstract perspective – less obvious music and dance commentary – sensitivity to the horrific society response to perils of life and death revealed by AIDS.
Note:  The second half and final segment, starting with the male duet through the end of the performance of cleansing with water, is about compassion and caring specifically referencing the AIDS epidemic and human crisis where death was forced to be hidden, alone, in silence.
(locate notes in MWDCCo files for male duet, minister’s script).

Choreography Section with names of dance artists:
Origin (Simione, Harling, Koob, Strum)
Yield (Cervantes, Strum, Schaeffer-Merkert, Harling, Simione, Wade)
Exposed (Harling and the Company)
Sell (Koob, Schaeffer Merkert, Wade)
Intimate Touch (Aids period) (Harling and Simione)
Purification (The Company)

USA Premiere:
Public Playhouse, Prince George County, Cheverly, Maryland.
December 4, 5, 6, 1986
Part I – Elvis solo, Maida Withers (https://vimeo.com/ 90645088)

Obsession Film with Interview: choreographer, Maida Withers, combines talking about Obsession with video clips of the dance: Fairfax Cable  Access Corporation, Channel 10, Fairfax, Virginia: https://vimeo.com/90116746

OBSESSION:  AMERICA’S OBSESSION WITH SEX
International Tour:

MEXICO:  November 1987
Obsession: America’s Obsession with Sex, toured in two cities in Mexico sponsored by the Government of Mexico.  Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes International Office of Public Relations assisted with the tour.

▪ Mexico City, Mexico – November 21 & 22, 1987.
Teatro de la Danza – Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes
Instituto Potosino de Bellas Artes, Teatro de la Paz

▪ Santiago de Queretaro, Mexico – November 24 & 25, 1987
La Universidad Teatro, Federal Network   (San Luis Potosi –  two cities in bordering states – which city did we perform?)

Dance Schedule – other 
Workshops – dance technique and dance improvisation
Public discussions – contemporary dance today (English and Spanish)

GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA – November 28 – 29, 1987
Teatro Abril
Obsession: America’s Obsession With Sex
First Lady Raquel Blandónv Cerezo appeared on stage at the opening performance to welcome the Company and the audience.
▪   Perform: Obsession: A “Made in the USA” look at sex
▪   Workshop: Teatro Nacional

First Lady Raquel Blandónv Cerezo sponsored the Company’s tour in Guatemala. At the time of our tour, Guatemala was at war in the countryside.  Bill DeMull, Dance Construction Company light designer, was sent in a car with Cerezo’s approval into a war zone to get additional light instruments from a theatre there.  Raquel was the wife of  then President of Guatemala, Vinicio Cerezo.  The First Lady introduced the Company and translated introductory remarks by Maida at the opening of each performance in Teatro Abril.
Special events in Guatemala:
▪ A reception at the Teatro Nacional
▪ Television interviews
▪  Special tour to Antigua
▪  Workshop for the National Folkloric Company
Maida and the Company were so honored to have such a distinguished and gracious sponsor as First Lady Raquel Blandón Cerezo. Maida Withers

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA (December 1 – 7, 1987)
National Festival of Choreography at the historic Teatro Nacional in Costa Rica. Maida Withers participation was sponsored by United States Information Agency.
▪   Workshops: Withers taught daily for 3 hours at the historic Teatro Nacional, San Jose,  Costa Rica

Photos – Part I (Elvis Pressley)
Greg Simeone,  Original  “Elvis, solo”
Annetta Wade, Solo FigureWomen’s Trio:  Annetta Wade, Lorena Cervantes, Taffy Schaeffer-Merkert
SCAT: Annetta Wade, Michael Koob, Taffy Schaeffe-Merkert
(2nd cast) Susan Short-Bensinger, Stephanie Simmons, Larry Gross
SCAT

Below – Part II / AIDS
View ORBIT film:  https:vimeo.com/7691282
Part II:  AIDS – Greg Simeone and Tim Harling

Maida Withers performs “Elvis” solo in Prince George’s Playhouse performance
Maida Withers  in the “Elvis” role in “Suite Elvis, December 4, 5, 6, 1986
Public Playhouse, Prince George’s County, Cheverly, Maryland Performance
Taffy Schaeffer-Merkert –  Promotional Flyer / Obsession 

What the press is saying

"OBSESSION" is a dynamic collaboration between choreographer Maida Withers and jazz bassist/composer Michael Willis. This 70-minute "made in the USA" exploration of 20th century sexuality features seven dancers and live jazz music incorporating elements of bebop, modern, and new music." Washington Post

"Brilliant passages and striking vignettes" The Washington Post Washington Post

Dance Construction, de Washington, en Mexico Manuel Arista

"In the opening section of Maida Withers' "Obsession: A Made in the USA look at Sex," a preacher is drowned out by a set of Elvis Presley songs to which a dancer gyrates so wildly that he literally grinds himself into the floor.
The notion that sex has dominated culture in America in the second half of this century is at the heart of 'Obsession, a collaboration with the Washington Jazz Musicians that had its premiere Friday night at Marvin Theatre.
For all its suggestiveness, the work remains tame for anyone who watches prime-time television. There is no nudity, no realistically simulated sex, no polymorphous perversity. With the exception of a clever parody of "exotic" or Vegas dancing, the work seems more a sensitive exploration of sexuality than a commentary on how sex is presented by popular culture.
As in other works by Withers that have displayed social or political concerns, there is a clear tension between the subject matter and more formalist interests. Withers' tendency toward abstract exploration often overpowers any theatrical "message," and "Obsession" strays far into purely kinetic concerns. This meandering results here in a work of brilliant passages and striking vignettes that alternate with more obscure and puzzling sections within an unfocused structure.
However, there is much in the piece to admire. Withers gives equal time to non-heterosexual expressions of love, for instance. One of the best sections is a duet for Greg Simione and Edward Akio Taketa that explores both tenderness and competitiveness between two men who support each other's weight in Kamasutra-like poses. Like much else in the piece, the strikingly athletic duet is marred only in its being overextended.
Under the direction of Michael Willis, the Washington Jazz Musicians contribute pungency, and from her newly reconstituted Dance Construction Company, Withers coaxed splendid performances, most notably by Simione, Taketa, and Annetta Wade." Suzanne Levy

"... a sensitive exploration of sexuality..." ?

FUNCION EN EL TEATRO DE LA PAZ
DANCE CONSTRCTION COMPANY OFRECE HOY "OBSESION 1987" EL HERALDO

"I enjoy the bizarreness of life and the observation and participation of the unexpected." says Maida Withers....The dance has to be taken like that. I had the luxury of starting my serious artistic work in the 60s. Life theater was better than a lot of what took place on stage. We were breaking the rules, challenging the rules, and bringing our political and social realities into the theater. But we've had to grow up, to get beyond that aspect of art. We're not in that stage right now. Audiences are more sophisticated. But I still relish the nonsense and the amazing phenomena of life that juxtaposes things together. I still live every day as theater."
Withers personality combines a unique mixture of youth and sagacity. On the one hand, wise and philosophic, on the other, brash and bold. Wearing a simple, black sweater dress with a bright parakeet pinned boldly at the neck, she jumps from her seat with sweeping, intricate gestures that increase her commanding stature and lengthen her long limbs, to describe her latest work. Vivacity infuses every phrase. Her well-defined features and deep-set blue eyes, surrounded with swirls of grey blond hair, radiate with the intensity of her life's work."
"Withers latest work, Obsession, which previewed April 24 and 25 at Marvin
Center evolved from her willingness to be challenged by the unexpected. She was frustrated and exhausted with "the bureaucracy of dance. I was tired of fund raising, extravagant sets, great ideas and big planning. Artists get to the point where they feel they can't even make work. Obsession is the beginning of an idea. After Laser Dance, June 1985 which was so intense - the personalities were intense, the amount of money it took was intense, the lack of experience in collaboration some of the participants had was intense. I was exhausted emotionally and physically and I thought the easiest way to restore myself was to do something lighter, more fun, and not so pretentious."
Laser Dance took two to three years of planning and six months of collaboration with laser artists Rockne Krebs......
"Withers started Obsession with the concept of Elvis Presley. She had inteded to do a period piece of the Presley era. As she worked, she realized that Elvis Presley was the beginning of the sexual revolution in America. "I decided to go beyond just doing a period piece," she said. "I'm not very restrained in stopping myself from doing something that is in conflict with my original idea."
"Through movement the group of seven dancers deals with the emotions of sex.....
During another sextion, the dancers carry exercise mats on stage; each couple, on their respective mat, initiates a series of movements decribing the emotions of sex without being sexually explicity. They touch, hesitate, retreat, fight, and briefly hold each other. "If the concept is clearly defined and the dancers understand the concept, why spend ten weeks rehearsing it." This section, which was very funny and packed full of movement, was mostly improvised."
.... Withers describes herself as having a common man background. "You've got poverty, money, social injustice. You see it all, compressed. IN a small town there is no culture except what you make yourself."
....."My family always encouraged me to feel free to differ."
(long article continues for two pages). Sharon Jemison

"Una compania de vanguardia que rinde culto a las imagenes"
Auditorio Nacional

Vanguard Dance Company Premieres 'Obsession'
"Withers admits her narrative style is direct social commentary. "The puirpose is not to convert someone but it does make social observations." "Obsession explores sexuality through an American eyeglass, in an "intimate but not a vulgar way,' Withers says. "Sexuality is cleansing, purification. In this piece, the whole group comes together in a harmonious way."
Withers inspiration in the creation of the piece came from growing up in the age of Elvis, and Elvis broke tradition in the South, where the churches were strongly against sexuality and Withers says, "a hero is a beginning...and I think Elvis was the beginning of breaking the Puritanical restrictions where women could enjoy the discover of their sexuality." Diana Maria Konupek, News Staff Reporter

"Dance Construction," se Presenta por Unico dia en el Teatro de la Paz.

Sin Obsesiones
La lucha libre sobre un colchon...now hable del juego o enfretamiento erotico con visos de violencia que no solo hable de una obsesion sino de la dominacion sexual ejercida por siglos y siglos Patricia Cardona

Ofrece Dance Construction 2 funciones, hoy y manana

Obsesion es en espectaclo impactante fueremente visual e imaginativo que aborda el tema de la sexualidad... S, Rinaldi; E. Arolas

"Maida Withers y Dance Construction Company de Washington Presentaron su Obra "Obsession", en Esta Capital.
Maida Withers concluye su obra dandonos laidea de sexualidad como esencia de amor y purification Mireya Ballesteros

Jovenes coreografos: Con lecciones y bailes comenzo festival
"Las lecciones de Maida Withers estuvieron muy concurridas... Esta semana

Sostiene Maida Withers Rebeldia eneu ante tecnicas tradicionales