Ledge – Fairfax Cable TV – FCAC Program

“Then Shinov loosed an arrow that flew straight but missed its mark and went plowing about the face of the earth in every conceivable direction, digging deep gorges and canyons, raising up mountains, casting huge boulders.  In this way the water courses were determined.  Then, the people dispersed, each finding for themselves a place.”  Piute Indian

LEDGE is an evening-length  mythical journey with the Earth (a woman / a man) performed by commanding dancers to an original new music score by a composer in a sparse stage of hanging ropes.

Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre /  Washington, DC
November 12/13, 1988

DANCERS:  Maida Withers & John Lancaster
COMPOSER/MUSICIAN: Michael Willis; MUSICIAN: Bruce Robinson

LEDGE features:
DUNES
MOUNTAIN BIRTHING
MAN
SOAR                                    (Continuous performance without intermission)
EARTHWORK
CROSSINGS
EARTH SPIRIT RISING …

“. . . The choreography caught the awesome power of its subject the way nature dances seldom do”
“. . . big, plain movements danced on a mammoth scale”
“Withers is a strong and stunning dancer”
“. . .virtuostic,”     “. . .captivating imagery”
“. . .moving”

LEDGE:  VIDEO DOCUMENTARY – 1989
Linda Lewett, Producer
Metro-Arts Program, Cable TV
Fairfax TV (FCAC), Fairfax, Virginia
Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre
November 12/13, 1988
Ledge Video:  https://vimeo.com/100503881  (see opening video)

LEDGE / VIDEO
Dunes(0:00:42 to 0:08:28)
Mountain Birthing (0:08:33 to 0:21:32)
Man Birthing(0:21:36 to 0:24:18)
Earthworks(0:24:20 to  0:27:00)
Crossings(0:27:02 to 35:49)
Earth Spirit Rising  (0:35:53  to: 0:38:54)
Soaring (0:39:03 to 0:42:22)

WORLD PREMIER:
Mexico City, Mexico / August 30 & 31, 1988

I MUESTRA INTERNACIONAL DE DANZA CONTEMPORANEA
(VERANO ’88)
PRIMER ENCUENTRO INTERNATIONAL DANZA
25  Agosto – 4  September 1988
Teatro Juan Ruiz de Alarcon
Centro Cultural Universitario (UNAM)
Mexico City, Mexico

La Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico features: seminars and workshops; choreographers showcase/festival; roundtables/academic discussions

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – WORLD PREMIERE
The world premiere stage performance was presented in the First International Festival of Dance, Mexico City, Mexico,  August 25 to September 04, 1988.  Dance Construction Company (Maida and John) performed Ledge August 30/31, 1988.   The invitation to the Festival came through Ignacio Duran Loera, Minister of Cultural Affairs at the Embassy in Washington, DC.  Maida Withers and John Lancaster spent two weeks in Mexico City at the Autonomous University for the Festival, sharing ideas and dances with companies from Italy, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, and China. (Festival brochure, review, other documents available in attached archive)

 
Dunes – Photo by Arlen Withers: Dancer – Maida Withers, Dancer

Video: DUNE – included w

 In Winds of Sand solo
 https://vimeo.com/101621322
View:  Moving Earth /  Dune Solo: https://00:00:00 to 0:05:58)

Video:  DUNE – included on Earth Spirit Rising:

Moving Earth / DUNE Solo: 0:09:13 to 0:16:53

LEDGE:  Other Performances
Preview:  Dance Place, Washington, DC:  June 4, 1988 (work-in-progress)
USA:  Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC:  November 12 & 13, 1988

Ledge,a production of Maida Withers’ Dance Construction Company, has been funded, in part, by the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities.

What the press is saying

"... virtuostic... captivating imagery..."

"Creating a dance for herself proved to be a new experience for Withers. "When you are the performer you don't have to deal with another personality or style. It allows me a more forward approach not to have to transfer my ideas to someone else's body. My being the performer removes me from the analytical and intellectual role into the intuitive. I don't has to break things down in a detailed way. It does have one disadvantage, you can never look at what you are doing." Withers prefers full-length dances, which usually take her a year of conceptualization, research and experimen tation. "This piece is very ancient, primative, but simple," says Withers. This summer she will return to southern Utah with her company and film crews to construct the full work on sites in the canyons and deserts. "Ledges" at 8:30 pm June 4 and 5 1986 at Dance Place. Linda Dinsmore

"Strong in images and fertile in meanings, the work is pedestrian in its dance movement and one suspects there will be further changes. The first image has John Lancaster hanging upside down on a rope. Withers turns him as she stalks around his suspended form. These two could be gymnasts. The second hanging, despite the athletic equipment suggests a crucifixion - Lancaster writhes slowly painfully, while dangling upside down from a trapeze. Withers stands poised in back with pulley handles. For the third hanging, he kneels and Withers places his head in a noose. She tightens it and his body gives a final twitch. When the two dance together it is the arrested motion that dominates. They lean toward each other like wrestlers, pushing, at loggerheads. At other times, they lean on each other for support. Even in a passage of lifts, Withers is snared by Lancaster rather than sustained in flight. Apart, too, it is inhibited movement that becomes the visual focus - Withers' arms immobile, stretched b a stiff rod across her back and Lancaster poised warily on a pedestal. Or Withers squats with her arms propped on her legs. George Jackson

Withers Out on a Ledge! … "The dance is deliberately haphazard, as though Withers were showing us individual pages of her notebook rather than a finished lab report… and the choreography - acrobatic and aggressive, with its big, plain movements danced on a mammoth scale - caught the awesome power of its subject in a way that nature dances seldom do." Alexandra Tomalonis