CONFIRM DATES 1977 and 1978  (or 1978 and 1979) with published materials 1977 – Give the Dancers Castenets: The first evening-length collaboration of Maida Withers Dance Construction Company with performance poet, Chasen Gaver,  Dance Project, Adams Morgan, Washington, DC with Sculptor, Edward LeBoe; Architect, Terry Rosenheck.
Years 1977 and 1978 performances by Chasen with Dance Construction Company featured entirely different poems and different content for performance of dance – there were subtitles, as well.

Chasen Gaver  wrote new poems and selected previous poems that he performed with the dancers on stage.  He was considered a Washington, DC “original.”  Some say he was one of Washington, DC’s first rappers. He performed speaking his text “live” and moving alone and, also, among Dance Construction Dancers.

“Beloved Chasen” was one of the earliest in Washington, DC to die of AIDS.  Chasen Gaver’s papers, 1977-1988  (collection number 7575) are part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at the Cornell University Library.  http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM07575.html

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