In Winds of Sand – Maida Withers, solo (1992) – Premiere: talk with audience at conclusion.
“the act of being, creating with the earth!”

Sands Cycles – FILM – Verabel Cluff  – Filmmaker
A large-scale projected installation of “dunes” slides and the exotic Sands Cycles film.

(1993) January 29 and 30   In Winds of Sand – a daring, powerful solo by Maida Withers that reveals the magic, beauty, and daring of Coral Dunes (Kanab, Utah) and white crystal quartz sands, White Sands, New Mexico, coupled with the harsh realities of surviving in stark wilderness environments revealing embodied mysteries of change and survival. Note: Maida was born in Kanab, Utah and was familiar with the Coral Dunes as a child.
Premiere:  Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC
Tours:  France, Netherlands, China, Korea, Venezuela

SandS CycleS a visual poem, a stunning art film of Withers improvising on Coral Dunes, Utah and White Sands, New Mexico, is projected onto an elaborate stage set with ramps, platforms, fabric and backdrop screens to receive film projections. Slides of sand dune formations are projected on the floor with 8 slide projectors, technology available at the time. SandS CycleS is a film submitted to film festivals (see partial listing).

Maida Withers Program Statement 1993:
In Winds of Sand, Withers reveals her experience of living and working, the act of being, in the challenging environment of moving earth/dunes.  This performance installation of dance, visual projection, movable sculpture and music, is the latest of Withers’ ongoing art projects with nature, the environment, and ecology.  As the center piece for the stage work, Withers and Cluff created the dance video, SandS CycleS, a visual poem, capturing the beauty and magic of the sand dunes coupled with the harsh realities in this stark wilderness environment…the mysteries of change and survival.  The idea for a sand landsite project originated in 1987 when Withers returned to Kanab, Utah, the home of her birth, for a video project on neighboring Coral Dunes, Utah.  Withers and Cluff initiated the White Sands project, shooting many of the photographs included in Winds of Sand, 1990, when they studied the life and rituals of Pueblo Native American peoples in New Mexico.  Withers and Cluff returned to the White Sands and the Coral Dunes in 1991 to shoot the current dance video, seeking connections to the land and to kindred spirits, ancient and present.

The stage work parallels the structure of the SandS CycleS film which is edited based on the famous Hero’s Journey, concepts and characters defined  by Joseph Campbell, psychologist and mythological researcher, writer, and scholar.  In Hero’s Journey, Campbell reveals eight characters:  innocent, martyr, orphan, caretaker, warrior, destroyer, magician, and the ruler. The decision by Belle Cluff to edit the film based on Campbell’s Hero’s Journey came after all site work, filming on Coral Dunes and White SandS, was completed. During the month of working on the dunes, Maida was creating varied scenarios discovered during each days exploration in the deadly Sun, heat and wind and the challenge of moving in deep, hot sand and relating to the limited plants/bushes available for refuge from the Sun. Tea Schiano, visual artist, and Maida planted several tree limbs, prayer sticks, with messages to nature, man, and the Gods. Colored sheets were planted in the sand by Schiano to create sand paintings created by the wind. In Winds of Sand is memorable. (See below)

Withers “Statement to the Earth” – Program Notes
“Maida Withers began exploring land sites as a place for healing and to develop artistic work. The Coral Dunes of Utah and the White Sands of New Mexico are the Earth site sources for the work, In Winds of Sand. For Withers, the Coral Sand Dunes represents a deep connection to her place of birth in Kanab, Utah. In 1987, Withers began the first of her land site creations with “Moving Earth/Dunes.” In 1990, Withers and Verabel Call Cluff,  studying the life and rituals of Pueblo Native American peoples in New Mexico, initiated the White Sands project, shooting many of the photographs included in the production In Winds of Sand.  Withers and Cluff returned to the White Sands and the Coral Dunes in 1991 for almost a month to engage in a “daily” shoot for the dance video. The performance installation of In Winds of Sand is a large painting, a subtle and shifting space much like the sands, that captures Withers’ experience of working and living with nature.” (Maida Withers)

*The Hero with a Thousand Faces, book by Joseph Campbell: “In his lifelong research, Campbell discovered many common patterns running through hero myths and stories from around the world. Years of research lead Campbell to discover several basic stages that almost every hero-quest goes through (no matter what culture the myth is a part of).  He calls this common structure “the monomyth.”

 In Winds of Sand – Excerpts
https://vimeo.com/101621322 (00:00:00 to 0:05:58)
View Moving Earth/ DUNE…Earth Spirit Rising:
https://vimeo.com/93606139  (0:09:13 to 0:16:53
Collage: Maida Withers, Coral Dunes, Utah; Photographer/Filmmaker, Verabel Call Cluff

Photographer:  TBD
Maida performing in Korea

Maida Withers; Photographer – Verabel Call Cluff

Maida Withers;  Photo: Verabel Call Cluff, White Sands National Park, New Mexico

Venezuela Tour
(1997) November 1 – In Winds of Sand – Aula Magna Theater, Central University of Caracas, Venezuela – SandS Cycles film projection on backdrop

Below:  Maida Withers, Korea, 1994

Above: Korean Dance Magazine Editor – participants, Shaman leads family cleansing/healing ceremony

Maida Withers Workshop:  Jooksan Teachers_Korea

What the press is saying

"I believe that art, like love, does not recognize any frontier." Kim said. "Moreover, art is the common language of the masses, the joy of which ought to be cherished intimately. Art exposes an individual to a thought-provoking zone where a person goes with the flow, or otherwise would face a joyless journey to the unknown." The Year of Korea, Jan 21 and 22, Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC Je Young Kim - Korean Artist Quote / Interview

Withers's "In Winds of Sand" has shifted yet again. This pro-environment, multimedia work, which features film footage of Withers dancing at Coral Dunes, Utah, has been evolving over a two-year period. With each performance she strips it down until, like a desert plant that retains water, it conserves the essence of Withers's dramatic vision. That vision is one of the massive landscapes that stretch across the visual field and back in time." Pamela Squires - Washington Post

"Maida Withers is empowered with an imagination as large as her big-boned frame. This longtime local choreographer is still one of the most masterly dance makers in Washington. Her latest concert, which she shared with Korean modern dance choreographer Je Young Kim, Saturday at Marvin Center was flawed but fetching." Pamela Squires - Washington Post

"The affinity between these two dancers was immediately apparent. Both paid painstaking attention to visual design, and took a spare approach to movement."
"Most importantly, both conceptualized their works dramatically. Kim finally hanged herself. Withers slipped under the screen and disappeared into herself." Pamela Squires - Washington Post