Visões Urbanas – 2013
During a dance notation conference in Mexico (I remember it as Rio de Janeiro, but that is under discussion) after Maida performed a solo, she watched from the wings as a mature female, a stranger named  Mirtes Calheiros, performed an amaziing, unusual hypnotic dance.  Maida waited to meet this mature and intelligent dancer…..and the friendship continues.  Maida and others from Dance Construction Company have participated in four or more Visões Urbanas  street festivals in São Paulo, Brazil.  Mirtes and her husband/dancer/manager/yoga specialist, Ederson Lopez, produces amazing theatre works for stage and other locations through Cia Arte Saos Do Corpo, Art Brazil. Members of the Company have a maturity that is lacking in many dance companies today.  Each individual in the Brazil group contributes materials as a mature and informed performer. They perform on stages, in the street, at monuments, on film, and tour internationally.

Anthony Gongora, Maida Withers, and the audience perform in Collision Course a.k.a. Pillow Talk,  not the Pillow Talk stage work, but a script for performance and audience involvement in Visoes Urbanas, 2013, street festival.

Visoes Urbanas 2012 – example of annual festival.
Maida is not on this video. Trying to arrange for videos for the purpose of the archive.

Hello Maida
I hope you do a great trip to Africa.
We have had the honor of presenting our performance after your marvelous presentation. I know the impression it caused on us will last for a long time and because of it I want to thank the opportunity of meeting you. It renewed our morale in order to keep on our way, once it gives us the chance of meeting people like you. We have visited your web site and I could understand a little more about your research.

I’d like to get your home address so we could send you some videos of our company and so keep this friendship.

Best wishes

Looking forward to seeing again
Company performed after me in Mexico.
Mirtes Calheiros
MIRTES – artesãos do corpo [mailto:mirtes@ciaartesaosdocorpo.art.br]
www.ciaartesaosdocorpo.art.br

Maida and DCCo have participated 5 times, I believe, in Brazil.  Mirtes came to  GWU to create a work on students, but becaue of COVID, GWU classes were not on campus for public events such as a live performance.