(1984) May 14  Mr. and Mrs. Sally Ride.  Maida Withers and Brook Andrews performed the charming Mr. and Mrs. Sally Ride in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum lobby (entrance foyer), under the hanging spaceships, for a large audience of tourists with families along with groups of school children.  Music was presented “live” by Teddy Klaus. Dancers were dressed in clear plastic suits (jackets and pants).  Dancers performed in a “floating” manner upside down and downside up, bumping with ease and suspended, falling and rolling as if in outer space without earth’s gravity – referencing a “loss of innocence.”  Performing simulated life outside planet earth under the airplane hanging in the large open space above the audience seemed appropriate.  Children on school tours were in the audience along with regular tourists.

Mr. and Mrs. Sally Ride was the final dance in Dance Construction Company’s Smithsonian Salute to Washington Dance (May 12, 1984), a dance series presented by Smithsonian Resident Association with performances at the Natural History Museum, Baird Auditorium. Washington, DC.  The Dance Construction Company Salute to Washington Dance was an evening-length performance titled, Dances on Men and Women.  The event was the Company’s 10th anniversary celebration with a retrospective featuring performances including excerpts from Yesterday’s Garlands and Yesterday’s Kisses (1976), Duet on Stools, Women See (1980), Families Are Forever (1982) and Mr. and Mrs. Sally Ride (May 12. 1984).

What the press is saying

"The program of well-chosen excerpts chronicled Miss Withers' personal and always fascinating journeys in dance, as well as changing attitudes toward family life and love." "The company serves as a vehicle for Miss Withers' explorations of mixed performance media - modern movement, experimental music, and avant-garde visual effects. Devoid of the multimedia trappings and intense psychological scenarios of the original works, the choreography could be savored as pure dance anchored by the symbolic interaction of men and women in the movement." "This was a rare opportunity to see the evoluton in Miss Withers' work over the years." Julie Van Camp / Washington Dance (Natural History Museum)

"Now that the Dance Construction troupe is about to celebrate a 10th birthday, Withers decided it's time for a retrospective. Thus, excerpting older work for Saturday's program proved timely. It also turned out to have unanticipated benefits. The concentration and concision of the excerpts - in contrast to the more diffuse wholes-worked to their advantage. The program also offered a more comprehensive view of Withers' and the company's artistic range. The selection, avoiding the purely formal side of Withers' choreography, were grouped together as "Dances on Men and Women" and explored gender relationships of the past, present and future. The amusing "Duet on Stools" from Yesterday's Garlands and Yesterday's Kisses, had a couple casually disrobing, with constant interruptions by stray thoughts and daydreams. Three numbers from Put on the Music and Let's Dance were whimsically stylized versions of '40s social dances. From the feminist Woman See came two duets - the blithely sensous "Journey of Innocence" and the love-hate vignette "Ties That Bind." Especially powerful was a quartet from "Families Are Forever" that probed generational and genealogical linkages. The new piece, Mr. and Mrs. Sally Ride, a duet for Withers and Brook Andrews, took off on the floating movement quality and the newly defined male-female roles evoked by space travel. The other dancers were John Bailey, Frances Stonkey, Dale Crittenberger, Susan Jamieson, and Susan Short. Like Withers and Andrews, they projected a strong sense of personal involvement." Alan M. Kriegsman / Washington Dance (Natural History Museum)