Category Archives: Foundation Period (60s to 80s)

WPA – Early Works

WPA - Early Works  (Washington Project for the Arts) 1974 Maida involvement with Washington Project for the Arts as a new multi-disciplinary organization in Washington, DC established by Alice Denny, facilitated the Dance Construction Company rehearsing  and performing in the WPA ...

LEGACY: 50 Years Dance on the Edge

MAIDA WITHERS AND THE DANCE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY LEGACY: 50 Years   Dance on the Edge Corcoran School of Arts and Design, Corcoran Flagg Building Galleries 500 17th Street NW, Washington, DC LEGACY_Exhibition Booklet (click) HISTORY EXHIBITION - September 23 - October 23, 2022 Maida Withers and the ...

Mass – A Fifth Generation Radiator Brought to us on the Sabbath

1972  Mass - A Fifth Generation Radiator Brought to Us on the Sabbath:                      A dance opera Choreography:  Maida Withers w Sharron Rose Music:  John Driscoll Dance Solo:  Sharron Beckenheimer (Rose)      Dancers/Vocals:  GW ...

Essays Part I: Of the Mind; Part II: Of the Heart

1966 - Choreography with GW dancers explores the balance and conflict between the impulses of the mind and that of the heart  Obviously that was of concern to the artist in the emerging Post-Modern expressive conversation Of the Heart Of the Mind Of ...

Washington Project for the Arts – Performance

(1975 - ) Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) was founded in 1975 by the art impresario Alice Denney, organizer of the legendary NOW Festival in 1966  Artists joined in cleaning out the bird dung in a vacated building that was ...

Thin Holes / BYU Residency

1976 - Thin Holes, a new work created during a three week summer dance residency:  Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company (Maida Withers, John Bailey, Brook Andrews) and John Driscoll, composer/musician, engaged in a three to four week residency ...

Dance / Music Columbus Museum of Art

Past Informtion in red deleted: https://maidadancecom/works/changing-the-system/  TITLE  DELETED FROM THE WEB 1974 - The performance at the Columbus Museum of Art was during the public celebration of the change of the name from Gallery of Fine Arts to Columbus Museum of Art, ...

Dances on Men and Women (Repertory)

1984 - Retrospective - selection of short duets and quartets created by Maida Withers for the Dance Construction Company, 1974-1984, presented by the Smithsonian Institution, Natural History Museum - overtones of feminist notions about WOMAN  Program in file Excerpts from dances ...

Time Dance: Found Audience – Found Space (1977)

1977 - This version of Time Dance was an adaptation of dancers performing selected segmants of choreography from the stage work, Time Dance, on the steep steps leading down to the Potomac River behind the Lincoln Memorial  The performance occurred ...

Time Dance (1984)

1984 - Restaging choreography of 1976 version of Time Dance  for performance in Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre  The square was adapted to a very large diamond rather than the original square space at Mt Vernon HandChapleand many other changes occurred  ...

From Movement to Dance: People, Creatures, Things

  [embed]http://vimeocom/108531246[/embed] 1967 - Maida created this 16mm film as part of her educational engagement with dance for children Maida was an active participant in the inauguration of the USA national Artist-in-Schools initiative that brought artists into public schools for curriculum development ...

Dance/Sound Events: Tin Tabernacle Series

1973 - 1974  Maida Withers Dance Construction Company presented five evenings, Dance/Sound events, the Tin Tabernacle Series,with sculptor/musician, John Driscoll, in a very large and dome-shaped building, fondly, referred to as Tin Tabernacle Tin Tabernacle was a large GWU gymnasium with ...

For Verabel

1977 - "For Verable, a female duet created in recognition of the separation and eventual divorce of two of my (Maida's)  dearest Mormon friends, Verabel Call Cluff and Tony Cluff, parents of children, good friends of my children"   The duet ...

Evening of Poetry and Dance I

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 Chasen Gaver  wrote new poems and selected ...

Evening of Poetry and Dance II

1978 - Baby It's About Time! an absurd and outrageous social commentary event performed by dancers with Washington, DC's most controversial performance poet, Chasen Gaver  Chasen Gaver performed his poems sometimes using small hand-held instruments  Performing in cabaret style, he ...

White Mansions – Holy Rood Cemetery

JoAnn Sellars, John Bailey, Maida Withers, Brook Andrews WHITE MANSIONS - 1975 The first performance took place at the newly renovated Washington Project for the Arts space on 1227 G Street NW,  Washington, DC in 1975  Dancers assisting in cleaning out the ...

Time Dance (1976)

1976 - Quartet based on structure of pulse and accumulation  The dance begins with finger snapping the pulse and dancers continue the finger snapping off and on during the first 10 minutes The pulse appeared in the movement or as ...

Phase Tracing I

1978 - Phase Trasing I, an evening-length work, a collaboration with Ron Kuivila, experimental sound artist Performance where dancers create audio with movements of the body causing/dropping the projected ultra sound an octave into a level of audibility Movement makes ...

Laser Dance (Stage Performance Excerpts / Fairfax Cable, FCAC-TV)

1985 - Four-part evening-length space odyssey (Part I: Departure; Part II: Quest; Part III, Domain; Part IV, Rites/Skylight/and Departure) of choreography that takes place inside a large-scale installation of argon laser beams created by Rockne Krebs and Synclavier II music ...

Yesterday’s Garlands and Yesterday’s Kisses

Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC [embed]https://vimeocom/73810026?turnstile=0zpz9a2jXNn299ShkYpeKgKxopwLkrDEMfy0N_-nUWou-ukgLATliY8WHCEjDlii9jii940e3hoq0OpdHM0zY_1p-5-eJZJXGbmsKny17FLD6CybKnEuzMitoasthirRQ43iEK_WPodvYhdsRreQNNa3EPyZzpRelpb64ln_fOi_5RqQQk7t9J3r8s0Pf9qBd8kBIJr-8-hi6S7BikyNouoSEZR7le_25oJbeJlVAVTNtp-8Y_YFfpl_2wimzHuO43Ymu-YK7kddTxQPAAMMkJtw0VEkFKNwacORTc_GFNr5f4P-SsBlCnnbM4GvqswN7fnStW3Sw7hyxzihdVhWXKihptUUJJJ_sR2y0FGi4lUqApIu4Cufx7YVRx6HNI64ha5XIRiyKgDObXe2w4Bb3Ecy_6v9bMCaCuq7OjTB9g7XDAho13g0CmzlQcV_TVJI7Fu8ixmdYvZ0XcegVQu2xoZJr4gEOQfgF5eq8aX5vIzS10An3hnmjBcAGPhXGufONn0XfTDmoXYADLG2zSHKUyNJLGhWCNbUN5iQ-YTXWX2D34E0wm-BzbhNYPLEPKbWowss_3CzIOIfHU0Q6vocf6iTAJp3MqOKxcX2aCREg-flXaRwBJYm3ucW7j_WPE_OWF9rY9y6sABYUIEoQ9__7mCsWwiYd34QaOw7mSrWVnqJ0TXO46mv-fZsaUICFOTZAcg60s8T47h4TOeyxskkgRUVec6SakF8jxLSba-eGxhAlDAkMcNIT7ieaMx2C2mLosAwdzem0ugSmVAcspwv9qWLRcSselSzMxmZQIkI9a0Npw26ZC-e5jimY-qQE-H9lanC53QG39b0OQRMVtLHcKiyq9qWvR_lVhejlbwvkt20czgjQIe9knpAQ4s0j0TY4Qa85b9cfc689ab3bb4cfefff5d7c1cfaf79df9eb0f8bdc6abaf4183da59c17133[/embed] (Costumes in this video are simple leotards  I believe that was the original costume, but the film says 1975must have been when the video was produced/posted???) 1974  Original Version: Evening length performance – nostalgia coupled with absurdity ...

Bog Works

BOG Works:  Maida Withers, dancer @ WPA  (no existing photos of homemade speaker installation)   Photo: Adam Peiperl BOG WORKS: John  Driscoll Instruments @ WPA BOG WORKS:  John Driscoll Instruments @ WPA 1975 - Friday, August 15, 1975 Home-Made Speakers  and Dance Program: Installation performance with ...