1980, is an evening including segments/excerpts from various dances including a large GW student cast: in the new Studio K Theatre:
Orff Suite
Orff Suite
Catching Butterflies and Other Things That Move
Mass Dance for GW Dancers
Plastic Sheet and duet fragments
Phase Tracings
Music by Steve Bloom and Mike Manring of “Natural Bridge.” Costume and sculpture by John Bailey.
1980 – Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company collaborate with seventeen Washington, DC dancers performing an evening-length dance improvisation script to music improvised by Steve Bloom, Michael Manring, and Chris Beaven in GW’s Studio K Theatre, Washington, DC.
Performance may include Mylar strips
Check MWDCCo archive for more information.
(1979 and 1980) Phase Tracing continued with two additional projects: Phase Tracing II and The Wall. Conflicting information on dates. Regrets: Insufficient information for accurate posting at this time.
Phase Tracing II
February 29, March 1, and March 2, 1980 and or April 27, 1979
1979 – Phase Tracing II
Performance developing the movements discovered in Phase Tracing I – dancers interrupting other dancers moving through a specific phrase created by Brook Andrews. This work eventually developed into Catching Butterflies and Other Things that Move. Dedicated focus on structure was important in the development of dances on content of choreography. Set: Hoops with plastic sheets suspended from the ring and mylar strips. See the building K video of the duet with Brook Andrews and Kathy O’Brien.
Performed 4/27/1979 in GW Building K – Studio Theatre or Dorothy Betts Marvin Theater….
or
Phase Tracing II was performed by DCCo in Studio K Theatre (Former Building K, Woman’s Gymnasium, large performance space.) February 29, or March 1, and March 2, 1980.
The Wall: (Exact dates not accurate at this time) Performance by GW Students and one row of mylar strips. Ron Kuivila, composer, and Maida Withers collaborate on a second performance with the concept of inaudible sound made audible through movement of dancers and the mylar forcing the inaudible sound one octave above human sensibility to become audible when movement intercepts using small microphones on stage. A wall of mylar strips was situated along the back of the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC. DATE UNKNOWN!
No photos available for Phase Tracing II or The Wall
Videos – Phase Tracing, Phase Tracing I, Phase Tracing II movement phrase materials related to creation of the complex choreography in Catching Butterflies and Other Things That Move.
References: https://maidadance.com/works/phase-tracing-movements-title/
Catching Butterflies and Other Things That Move:
1979 – “Fast paced dance of a recurring movement phrase where dancers interrupt and obstruct the motion of other dancers. The movements used to interrupt and those movements that are interrupted are both manipulated and employed in the structural development of the choreography.” (Program)
The choreography originated out of movements from Phase Tracing II – a phrase created by Brook Andrews that moves horizontally across the space. This cast featured Brook Andrews, John Bailey, Maida Withers, JoAnn Sellars, and Betty Tittsworth. Later dancers included Don Zuckerman.
The idea is that all movements are equal in value. The “dance” movement interrupted by someone grabbing an arm and the grabbing gesture all have equal value as dance and can be danced independent of the function of interruption. The movements required to interrupt and stop a dancer became movements in the choreography when they did not interrupt a dancer.
John Bailey, noted visual artist and one of the founders of Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, hand painted the gorgeous costumes. Each costume was based on an actual butterfly. John Bailey is known widely for his painting of the head/face of Marilyn Monroe on the hair salon building on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, DC. Maida Withers owns two of these photos given to her by John (see information about this noted iconic painting below).
Maida…2025 “I loved this work. Clean and clear movements. Very much enjoyed being “interrupted and interrupting others,” quickly and quietly with ease and dignity! Costumes are in the DCCo collection.” (6/7/2025)
Television PSA states: (https://vimeo.com/90679290)
Maida Withers presents CONCERT OF DANCE featuring the Dance Construction Company; February 28 & March 1 at 8:00 pm and March 2 at 5:00 and 8:00 pm, 1979. Studio Theatre, Building K at GWU, 817 23rd Street NW, Washington, DC featuring Maida Withers Dance Construction Company.
1980 – Review, Alan M. Kreigsman, Washington, Post:
City Dance ’80 presents MWDCCo in the Warner Theatre sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society, May 9, 1980 at 8:00 pm. Liz Lerman was the Artistic Advisor. That cast included Brook Andrews, Kathryn Hartman, Anne McDonald, Vincent Wineglass, Maida Withers, Don Zuckerman. (Catching Butterflies is NOT confirmed for this venue — Maida Withers)
Videos include: PSA; Rehearsal in Building K; Rehearsal in Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre.
Don Zuckerman
Brook Andrews 
AnnMcDonaldandBrookAndrews
Ann McDonald and Brook Andrews
Don Zuckerman, Maida Withers, Brook Andrews
John Bailey, founding member of MWDCCo, and artist for hand-painted costumes for Catching Butterflies and Other Things That Move, is a visual artist known widely for his portrayal of the Marilyn Monroe mural, located at 2602 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington D.C, depicts pop culture icon Marilyn Monroe on the upper outside wall of Salon Roi.[1] It was installed in 1981 by artist John Bailey. It was commissioned by Charles Stinson for Salon Roi’s owner, Roi Barnard’s 40th birthday.[2]
In 2001, the Woodley Park Neighborhood Association donated funds and brought Bailey back to restore the mural to its original vibrancy, as it had faded greatly.[3] New lights, donated by Starwood Urban, were installed to illuminate the mural at night. The Chipotle Mexican Grill on the corner of Connecticut Ave. and Calvert St., located below the mural, pays for the ongoing electrical costs for the lighting.[3]
The mural has gained widespread fame as a Washington D.C landmark. It is a stop on the Old Towne Trolley tourist bus, and is consistently reproduced in paintings, T-shirts, calendars and postcards.[4] It was voted as the first runner-up in the Washington City Paper‘s Reader’s Poll: Best Mural of D.C 2014.[5]
LISTED IN THE CHOREOGRAPHY BUT NO OTHER NOTES
1979 – Entourage – Music by Joe Clark
Performance: Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre.
(1978) – Phase Tracing, an evening-length work, a collaboration with Ron Kuivila, experimental sound artist. In the performance, dancer’s movements make inaudible sound audible with movements of the body or movement of silver strips of polyethylene/mylar strips hung from ceiling to floor in the stage space.
(Program note) “Dancing in a sculptural environment of transparent polyethylene and mylar strips hanging from ceiling to floor. The audio installation is titled, Comparing Habits by Ron Kuivila. The work involves sending sound into the space an octave above our hearing (ultrasonic) to create a field. Within that field movement is translated into audible sound. A fan moves the mylar and that also creates audibility of the ultrasound sent into the performance space from the wings by Kuivila. Each dancers body makes distinctive sound even when doing the same movement. The dancers distance from the origin of the sound also makes a difference in what sound is made audible. Microphones are an important aspect of the installation.” Ron Kuivila
Premiere: Dance Project. Washington, DC, 18th and Columbia Road, founded by Jan Van Dyke….this important community initiative later became Dance Place in NW, DC/MD.
Note: A phrase of movement originally created by Brook Andrews for Phase Tracing became the foundation for development into a later “new work” titled, Catching Butterflies and Other Things That Move.
Note: Phase Tracing II continues the collaboration with Ron Kuivila and dancers engagement with audibility and demonstrates MWDCCo early engagement with collaboration and experimentation with technology.
Diane Floyd and Don Zuckerman
Brook Andrews , Don Zuckerman, Diane Floyd, Maida Withers (arch)
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 choreography was created and staged around Chasen as the center piece. Performances cautioned – ADULT ONLY. Dancers were beginning to use text during stage performance. This was the second evening shared with Chasen: Evening of Poetry and Dance I, 1977 at Dance Project in Adams Morgan, Washington, DC.
Program:
Act I: Sounds “The poems in this set are constructed around rhythms and rhymes in an attempt to appeal to the sense of movement i the art of dance. (Poems (see file) Sounds; Dance City; Does Your Family Have the Money; Le Boehme; Yo
ur Guess is as Good as Mind (ropes and pillows); Manipulation; Life Under My Umbrella; Love Poem for Richard Pryor; Sonida Rico; Claudine (pajamas and robes); In Search of Nikki Butane;
Intermission
Act II: Daddy! “The poems in this set are more concerned with social comment, and rhythm and rhyme provide the medium through which the message is directed.” (Marlene sings Daddy!; Poems: Daddy; After 10 (masks); The Oracle at Phila-Delphi; Funk Junction; Freak Accidents; Midge (mannequin); Snap, Crackle, Poppers; Sales Talk; Give the Dancers Castanets; ENCORE: DISCO.
Maida Withers
1978 Dance, Dance, Dance was a ten-part series about professions in dance, 30-minutes each program, produced by Sandra Butler and narrated by Maida Withers, consultant. The series was shown in Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, DC.
Each weekly show featured a different topic with specialists participating in the TV program. Programs included the fields of management and dance, dance therapy, choreography and dancers, teaching, dance as exercise, etc.
Sandra Butler took the original taped copies to her home when she left employment at NBC-TV (channel 4) in Washington, DC. A fire in her home destroyed all of her records include this series.
At the time of this show, these professions were newly developing fields for employment in dance.
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 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.
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
1977 – Dances created by Maida Withers for the Dance Construction Company with live accompaniment by The Hartwick Orff Ensemble for the American Orff-Schulwerk Association held at the Sheraton Park Hotel in Washington, DC on Thursday, November 10, 1977.
The video shows only two dances from Orff Suite.
The program featured:
*Bolero – Bolero (Spanish dances from the 18th century is stated as the form. By the unison of the dance steps with song, body motions, and castinets, the Bolero is partially close in form to the elementary dance forms. 3/2 time – related to the scheme of the polonaise
*Performance of new choreography – Orff-Schulwerk:
Auftak (atapotheosis of the prelude.” (quarter/half/half/quarter – the after-beating contraction “masks” the 1st quarter designated as down-beating and makes it appear to be an upward beat – all percussion instruments
Ekstatischer Tanz (The unique phrase technique of the piece as rhythmic is presented by the complement clapping chorus, rattling and percussion. The expectable tension between organic and instrumental sound is altered by a stylization of a high degree of abstraction.
Nachtlied (The night son an atmospherically suspended impression suspended completely on flowering sound, stands in sharpest contrast to the rhythmogram or the Ecstatic Dance.
Kehraus (The model of an even-numbered march dance “alla marcia” lies at the basis. One can imagine the procession of a band approaching from the distance. There are 9 8 -measure phrases.
Orff Suite was also performed on March 3, 1980, in Building K with Phase Tracing I and Phase Tracing II.
The program also included a demonstration by MWDCCo of Music and Dance Improvisation and a Time/Dance Excerpt of Contemporary Choreography.
1977 – Site-specific environmental/political performance event created for Theodore Roosevelt Island National Park. Choreography/Collaborators, Maida Withers, Brook Andrews, John Bailey; Stilts, Brook Andrews; Jean Isaacs (pregnant) and Patrick Nollet performed in plants as nature. Musicians performing in the mote, John Bailey. Premiere: Theodore Roosevelt Island National Park, Washington, DC. Airplanes coming and going from National Airport were used to “cue” dancers performance of set scripts. Airplanes were passing on average every two minutes. Aspects of Roosevelt’s life and values became the subject of the performance (guns and roses, etc). There were 20 dancers (including the Dance Construction Company) and 10 to 15 musicians, Rogelio Maxwell, on cello; others performing in the water mote on the island in a stretched fabric installation on stools. Steve Bloom drums?? Brook Andrews introduced STILTS into the performance that were later used in Laser Dance.
1977 is an accurate year; specific date in question. The parking lot for the Island was small and so many people could not get into the performance due to no access except crossing Theodore Roosevelt Bridge to access the park.
Live music in all events and performances by MWDCCo. Always!
1977 Script/score for Sunday Maneuvers:
2:30 Preset: Kite in sky; parachute in place; trampoline in place; moat scene in place; stilts in place; individual props in place; megaphone in place; parking lot attendant in place with programs. Musicians in place near performance location. Dancers take positions on causeway to Island; one dancer in grove of trees in cotton dress; fabric sculpture over dead tree in area; Billy Sahm in Teddy Roosevelt statue.
2:45 Dancers begin, in silence, random progressive “Teddy Roosevelt Posture” accumulation of body parts along path to performance area. Arrive at entrance to Island.
2:55 Dancers HOLD “Teddy Posture” in silence until Billy Sahm get onto statue
3:00 “15 Musicians in Water in Mote” begin to play
3:05 *Dancers peel off from rear running (fast to slow pace) to “Teddy” line – hold until DCC dancers enter on stilts behind statue. Bob Buckley. “Dog Walker.” enters, walks to statue with dog on vertical grid, pulls dog and exits down the trail
*Dancers yawn beginning with downstage person sequentially – Dog Walker runs past downstage dancer
*Dancers easy jog forward (on bricks) or side (online) to “Square Dance” poisition (Billy Sahm down from statue) – Hold as DCC dancers enter on stilts
*Dancers turn to face any diagonal and lower to lie down on backs while DCC dancers travel to edge of brick squares and stop
*Dancers rise and turn to “Square Dance” position – Wendy Woodson counts 1 to 8
*Dancers perform “Square Dance” and return to original position and hold until sound of airplane (walk, walk, chassee, walk (fwd); 2 walks, 2 runs; run, walk backward on 90 degree angle; forward 4 leap steps repeat, jump (3/8th turn – 4 runs, step jump turn 1/8) Repeat 3.
*Dancers “Airplane Stance” on airplane entrance diagonal (lift arms side; open arms back; lift head diagonal forward while right foot is forward in 6th position; – Mary Buckley and Yvonne Baichich begin “Tag Game” and “Airplane Stance” (when dancer assume stance in front of you, you can choose to dissolve and go into chase or stand in front of someone else, until all dancers have exited.
*DCC dancers continue stilt improvisation, then exit to SL of Statue.
3:20 Bicycle event begins on cinder (outer) pathway
*8 Dancers enter one at a time and make circle run alone and then pick up the next dancer pick up each other – spiral into position left of Statue for “Finger Lick” (includes fall and roll & hand walk – hold 4th “Finger Lick” – DCC dancers walk across space on stilts stage left to stage right, exit
*Dancers complete “Finger Lick” – begin “T_H_E_O_D_O_R_E” – end in diagonal run through audience to “Military” (three-fourths around circle, enter cement area around fountain to circle center space)
*DCC dancers enter from behind statue on stilts imitate ‘military’ actions: march, fall, sixes, finish standing still between stilts
8 dancers perform “military event” around charcoal path and GRID area;
*Dancers group in fours and carry each DCCo dancer to position, lower stilts to ground on diagonal, rise and exit and march behind the trees
(Unless David Goff (cowboy at large) lassos Brook Andrews. If/When he does, run to brook and catch him and cry him off on shoulders
*Musician enter to right of statue to position, simulates response to “Statue-as-Conductor” and plays legato musi on viola – DCCo dancers enter through audience and improvise without stilts in the GRID
*Dancers choose two of the following options: “Finger Lick,” “Airplane,” “Tag/Chase,” “Airplane Fix,” “Repertory Phrase,” “Trampoline,” “Bench Cluster/Jump.” After approx. 7 minutes walk to position for “Diving Board” SR to SL
*Dancers perform “Diving Board” and DCCo dancers are forced out ahead of group dancers
*Musician stops playing, turns to audience, bows, bows to conductor, exits
3:40 Cameraman enters and sets up using black fabric over head
*Dancers enter one at a time in an exaggerated manner – perform gestures, comic posture, in place while Cameraman lights firecracker – BANG
*Dancers split and run to bridges – line up and perform “Processional” on bridges
*Adam and Eve (Jean Isaacs, pregnant) walk to center space, perform love duet, walk to statue and kneel; Billy Sahm with megaphone recites marriage vows; Adam and Eve cross to kiss; Billy Sahm shouts inscriptions – megaphone pronouncement in distortion
*Protest Segment: Billy shouting while dancers run to first tableau, run to second tableau and hold while DCC dancers walk in top of elevated water fountain – when 3 DCCo members have circled one then dancers go to original “Teddy Posture” and hold until cue to turn from Yvonne – turn to face status, slow walk backwards, increase pace slowly and turn to pedestrian walk out of sight
Water performers score: Parallel one another – symmetrical movements – simple, ritual, sustained. Holding bowl – water drizzle on postures. Slow walking. Use top bowl.
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 during rush hour when many drivers would pass by the site or stop for a light. We performed in costume. It was common for MWDCCo to present unannounced events in various locations in the city. One Sunday MWDCCo performed in as many fountains as could be locate in the city during a 3-hour period – FOUND AUDIENCE IN FOUND SPACES. Of course the artists tried not to be arrested for such activities.
Original Choreography:
Each Company member had a solo they created with group accompaniment added.
Original Costumes:
Costumes by John Bailey featured tie-dyed layers of costumes in shades of sky blue and water green. Each dancer had a leotard, cotton shorts and a T-shirt, long cotton tie pants, or a skirt. Clothes were de-accumulated down to the leotard during the dance.
Site Performance: Brook Andrews, Maida Withers, John Bailey – Steps at Potomac River
Site Performance: John Bailey, Maida Withers, Brook Andrews
John Bailey, Brook Andrews, Maida Withers
Brook Andrews, Maida Withers, John Bailey
1976: Hand Chapel (now used as a theatre), Washington, DC. March 26, 27, 28, 1976
Site performance:
1977: Steps by the Lincoln Memorial looking down over the Potomac River during rush hour. The National Symphony Orchestra also performed for the public at this location on a float in the river during the summer. It was already used for a site performance. We performed at rush hour so the cars would back up so they could watch.
Second stage performance:
1984: Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre; Music for Minature Objects, John Driscoll.
View rehearsal, 1977: https://vimeo.com/90683470
1977 – Forty-five minute show piece, a performance based on film dance of 1930s and 1940s. An actress reminisces over memorabilia about her life as a stage dancer/actress of the 1940’s. There are short segments of entertainment type dancing that is loosely based on film character prototypes and show business dancing. The work reflects Maida’s early involvement in tap dancing and musical theater.
The original performance was created for the Washington Project for the Arts in a cabaret-type setting with dancers in period costumes where the dancers engaged more intimately with the audience. The second version was re-created for City Dance performance at Warner Theater, May 7, 1977, sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society.
The more farcical original version was performed in authentic period costumes.) For the second version, dancers wore authentic satin white costumes and white tuxedos designed and created for the period by Beth Burkhardt.
Regrettably, there is no “live performance” of the 1977, only a walk-thru version done at Marvin Theatre since there was no opportunity for a full run for the City Dance performance at Warner Theater, May 7, 1977.
City Dance came into existence as an idea spawned by a GW MA dance student who engaged WPAS to do a city-wide dance event at the Warner Theatre in downtown Washington, DC. Two companies shared an evening with each taking 45 minutes. MWDCCo shared a concert with Melvin Deal’s African Heritage Dancers and Drummers.
Dance Sequence for Put on the Music…Let’s Dance:
Kay Shepperd, a central character, actress, at the front/side of the stage went down memory lane while enjoying the privacy of herself in a space that had wall paper from the period and props from the period such as photographs of women with male dressed in army uniform, books of the period, movie star photos. etc.
Jive (each dancer as a musician) – Long Tail, Dexter Gordon;
Runway (fashion ending in feather headdress); Milton Drake-Gen Oakland
Vibes (innocent male duet, vibration)Baby Dodds
The Stomp (quartet in military uniforms), Baby Dodds
Dreamtime (indulgent simplisti love), Ryerson-Watts-Eaton;
Roseland (ballroom dance competition), Scott Joplin, Waller-Razaf
Silv’ry Moon (Tap in DRAG), Madden-Edwards
Struttin (drunkard solo with curious trio behind), Ferdinand”Jelly Roll Morton
Rose Red (Spanish solo by Withers)
Finale (quartet recalls dance styles), Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines
1977 – Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS) Chairman of the Board, Ken Crosby, was interviewed on ABC-TV about the Series, City Dance, presented at the Warner Theatre in 1977. Maida Withers and Brook Andrews performed excerpts from Put on the Music…Let’s Dance in the ABC television studio in Washington, DC to promote the City Dance Series (1977).
The program was video taped from the screen of a home television so, regrettably, the quality is poor.
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 places the woman inside her home environment with a window, radio, bed springs suspended in the space. The work has the lead solo figure, Ellen Lang (GW undergraduate dancer), in a dream of herself as a sexually attractive woman questioning why her husband was staying out all night with another woman. Downstage was the imagined “dream self” outside of the confines of her home. The window light changed showing daytime and nighttime (inside and outside), waiting and worrying.
jpg copy of photo contact sheet of performance
There is a written script (needs to be located).
Ellen, GW dancer who was the “real” character, was human and more realistic in her movements – wringing hands and pacing back and forth – while Jean Isaacs, professional dancer from San Diego, California who was a guest faculty at GW, was exaggerated in her sexual behavior and emotional expression dancing downstage of the home environment.
Choreography and set design by Maida Withers
Music by John Driscoll
Costume Design by Beth Burkhardt (beige opaque A-line dress for Ellen and beige body leotard worn by Jean Isaacs, the mature figure).
There was a live radio on stage and whatever came up when Ellen turned on the radio was part of the music score. There was also audio access to the police channel….somehow!
First Performance: Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC. (1976)
Premiere: Washington Project for the Arts (1977)
The work may have been included in the repertory of the Three’s Company, San Diego, California by Jean Isaacs, Co-Founder of Three’s Company.
Original Sony reel to reel video transfer too dark for public use.
