BLEEPERS

Performed at WPA in the upper open theatre space on G Street

Props – Five working bleepers (extra for during performance) – check police station for a newer model
Lights – Amy Plummer
Light Design – same six options, possibly floodlight lights or flash cubes from camera plus one sustained light from boards.
House – Very dark – no isle lights or cove lights -0 cover all exit signs.
Costumes – presently red accent or possibly white.
Sound – John Driscoll with electronics with six sound options.
Dance Script – the event is 12 minutes in length with no bleeper; Six lights (patterns) also appear during the 12 minute event. The source, location, and duration of nature of the light is determined by the light designer (i.e. flashbulb, flashlights, lekos, etc). Only one light can be of a sustained duration.Dancers move about in theatre space (isles, catwalks, and enter and exit quietly).
Needs – Bleepers for newer model at police station
Public – Script available at the door. Script unnecessary for viewing the piece.

SCRIPT:
There are six dancers, five of whom are carrying bleepers and act as musicians (sound producers). Each sound/dancer is allowed to make 6 sounds during the 12 minute time space within the space available in the theatre.

Only one of the six sounds can be of a sustained duration. The dancer without a bleeper improvises a solo making sounds with his body. His/her solo is completed when he is given a bleeper by another dancer or when a bleeper is available to him o the floor.

Dancers with bleepers may enter and exit the space as they choose and move through the space as freely or limited as they choose. Dancers with bleepers maycluster. Two musicians playing also makes six sounds during the 12 minute time span. His pitches are related to those of the bleepers.

ICEBERGS: Fault Line

Earth and Environment, Interviews, Residency, Site Work, Stage Works, Turn of the Century (2000-2020), Work

Small Format Contemporary Dance Festival
Yekaterinburg History Museum*
Yekaterinburg, Russia

**ICEBERGS: Fault Line* August 26, 2016 @ 7:00 pm
Panel Discussion: August 28, 2016 at noon**

Maida Withers premieres ICEBERGS: Fault Line a solo based on MWDCCo site work, GLACIAL DRIFT.
Music: electronic Composer / Musician Steven C. Hilmy Text: Poet / Sonospher Alex Caldiero and Poet David McAleavey.

Maida is a noted “activist ” artist creating work to bring consciousness to environmental and earth issues since 1977.

*ICEBERGS: Fault Line is a solo variation of GLACIAL DRIFT, an adaptation of an environment work that explores the boundaries between the wonder of nature and human impact on the environment with specific reference to the rapidly changing Arctic and Antarctica regions. GLACIAL DRIFT, an original site work choreographed by Maida Withers for ten dancers with Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, premiered in the monumental ICEBERGS exhibition designed by James Corners Field Operations architects for the Great Hall of the National Building Museum, July 20, 2016 in Washington, DC

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ICEBERGS: Fault Line photos by Alexey Patentny

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Maida Withers with Ekaterina Sharanova, curator, in talk back after the show.

ICEBERG: Fault Line photos by Natalia Burleva
*Photo by Antonina Vorobyova

INTERVIEW – August 2016

Interview of Maida Withers by Ruslan Khisamutdinov, Russian journalist, regarding Maida’s view of dance in Russia past and present:

Interview in Russian language: http://культура.екатеринбург.рф/articles/569/i193372/

Interview in English:

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
I read that you visited Russia for more than eleven times. How in general and specifically can you describe the contemporary dance situation in Russia?

Maida’s Comments:
(1)Please view Under the Radar a dance documentary created in Russia: http://maidadance.com/works/under-the-radar-documentary-film/ This was a video by Maida Withers and American videographer Linda Lewett. Interviews were with Russian dance students, faculty, and city administrators, taken during our time at the Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. This gives the Russian perspective.

(2)Please view Tours and Projects in Russia to see the main activities of Maida Withers in Russia: http://maidadance.com/russian-tours-and-projects/. This information gives you a sense of my experiences in Russia.

My first trip to Russia was in 1997. Post-modern dance was flourishing. There was an optimism about “new dance” that was almost palpable. I was so excited to be present during this revolutionary period. We had exceptional collaboration with contemporary dance organizations in St. Petersburg (Kannon Dance, Vadim Kasparov; Sasha Kukin, Sasha Kukin Dance Company; Nina Gasteva, Iguan Dance); Moscow (Sasha Papal eve, Kinetic Theatre and TsEKh; Elena Tupyseva, TsEKh); and Arts Residency (Konstantin Grouss), Tatiana Gordeeva (TsEKh education director and dancer in Moscow & St. Petersburg), Arkhangelsk (Touch Festival, Nikolai Shchetnev), and Krasnoyarsk (Isadora, Elena Slobodchikova). We brought Sasha to the US to mount a major repertory work. Relations between American and Russia were improving in the late 1990s so there was often support from the US Embassy and foundations such as the Trust for Mutual Understanding for projects in Russia. You will see my last full project in Russia was in 2007, the tour of Thresholds Crossed (Russian/American dancers) to three cities in Russia. Russian dancers were superb. I was thrilled to share such a political work with Russian audiences. I have submitted three major proposals to the U.S. Government and other foundations that in the past have supported projects in Russia. Funding for these projects has not been forthcoming. The projects were stellar projects involving Russian and American artists (dancers, musicians, etc.). I deeply regret these projects did not get funding to make them possible in Russia and in America. Two Russian dancers have been MFA students at George Washington University in the last three years. I am impressed by their creative work. However, I noticed that American Dance Festival received $20,000 to present Russian choreographer Tatiana Baganova’s company, Provincial Dances Theatre, as part of American Dance Festival’s 83rd season in Durham, North Carolina in July 2016 and at the Joyce Theater in New York in August 2016. I enjoy the work of Tatiana. The USA is not presenting the “newer” voices from Russia at this time.

There is an expected maturation and leveling out, expected, when any new movement or discovery of change occurs.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
You had some projects created in Russia. What inspired you when working on performances in Russia?

Maida’s Comments:
This is difficult for me to answer. There are so many astonishing experiences in Russia and so many amazing dancers and dance administrators. I think the most inspiration came from the dancers. The Russian dancers are disciplined and hard-working and excited about dance. In 2007 the American dancers were working long hours and sustaining momentum. That was also very true of the Russian dancers, perhaps even more disciplined.

I suppose if I had to choose one project, I would choose Thresholds Crossed (Russian/American artists) http://maidadance.com/works/thresholds-crossed/ which resulted from a culmination of many experiences in Russia. Activities on Solovky Island were so important for me to understand a difficult historical period in Russia. At the time I was on Solovky Island America was struggling with Guantanamo Bay prison (Abu Ghraib) in Cuba. I am a very political person and often politics is a subtext of my major works. Thresholds Crossed was a somewhat daring project to present to audiences in Russia. Ekaterina was selected to be a performer in Thresholds Crossed. You will see her dancing beautifully.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
This year Ekaterina Zharinova invited you to Yekaterinburg for Small-format contemporary dance festival. Have you ever been to Yekaterinburg before and what do you expect from the festival?

Maida’s Comments:
No I regret I have not been in Yekaterinburg. I am thrilled to become acquainted with another great Russian city and the audience and artists there. I am told there will be an audience of perhaps 40 people so I anticipate the situation will allow for intimacy between me and the audience. I anticipate that the technical aspects (lighting, scenery, etc.) will be simple for expediency and why would you need additional elements when dancing in such a beautiful place. My performance includes text that I will speak in English and someone will speak the poems in Russian. The poems are an important part of the performance for clarity of idea. Frankly, I expect to learn a lot from the performance. That is always true but especially true with international performances.

Dance in Museums is popular now in the USA and it appears to be the same in Russia. Museums are happy to have dance bring in new audiences.

I have performed in museums extensively since the 1970s. I am so excited to be in such a gorgeous and historic building in Russia. I only regret that I will not be there long enough to create a specific work for that space, that city, and the culture in Yekaterinburg and, preferably, include Russian dancers and performers in the project.

Years ago, I read about amazing site projects taking place in Yekaterinburg conceived and produced by the National Center for Contemporary Art. I wrote several times to Alisa Prudnikova regarding their brilliant ideas. I am looking forward to getting acquainted with people in Yekaterinburg. I have heard many fine stories.

In the United States at this time, there is a strong movement of artists seeking smaller venues and alternate venues for performance. The theatres are often outside the budget for dance artists so new resources are emerging. It is exciting to be in situations that allow a new relationship of the dancer to the audience. This past year I did a performance in a large private home that was originally a “house of prostitution” – rich in decorative aspects. There were 75, mostly, single people who meet once or twice a month to share culture but also specialty food and just to meet each other. There are two or three organizations like this in Washington, DC. I suppose it may be due to the isolation that may occur with the consumption of social media that is isolating and the number of people who choose not to marry but are looking for social engagement.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
4. You have been working a lot with foreign students. Is the dance language is international? How do the dance perception and understanding differ among your students from different countries?

Maida’s Comments:
Fortunately, George Washington University MFA Dance Program is for mid-career artists because it is a distance learning program and student/artists are only on campus during two summer periods. Our goal is for the mid-career artists who have been in the field for some time to clarify their artistic vision and work and to chart a path for the future. It is quite up to the student to take the lead in that. The difference in values and knowledge about dance as viewed from various cultures is a great strength in the program. We have had two Russian students and it has not been a problem with those two brilliant artists. The students develop very strong relationships through sharing opinion in open discussion classes. The diversity could be problem if the students do not all speak, write, and understand the English language. Generally, there is no problem with verbal communication, but sometimes the writing takes a little more investment of time from the faculty.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question
I heard a lot about your latest project in one of the museums of Washington. You prepared hard for it and as far as I know its opening was quite a success. Can you tell us what this project is about?

Maida’s Comments:
Please view the web page on the recent GLACIAL DRIFT music/dance/poetry project for the GREAT HALL in the Smithsonian’s National Building Museum: http://maidadance.com/works/glacial-drift/

ICEBERGS is an exhibition in one of Washington, DC’s most astonishing museums known for the architecture in the GREAT HALL The building occupies an entire block in the center of Washington, DC. ICEBERGS is probably the most exciting exhibition in Washington during the summer. The architectural firm, James Corner’s Field Operations is the designer (designer for the High Line in New York City and many other international projects. They had just 10 days to install the immense landscape of white recyclable pyramids/icebergs that are held in place by steel grid 5 stories above and steel wire. Maida Withers Dance Construction Company and musicians, John Driscoll, NYC, and Steve Hilmy, Florida, occupied the space from 6 pm until 10 pm dancing and engaging with the public in the exhibition with a twenty-minute performance at 7:00 pm that was repeated at 8:00 pm. The National Building Museum sold 1100 tickets for the event. GLACIAL DRIFT was very emotional. While the installation is “pure” visual installation, the dance and music were responsive to the human response to the destruction taking place. The dancers performed very intensely and the audience felt the commitment that was expressed. There were three men and three women in the main cast and 3 additional women who performed only at the conclusion in dresses made from hand sized water bottles….a fitting ending with ice becoming water—oceans filled with plastic remains.

I did not dance in GLACIAL DRIFT. I was the “voice” adding text to the music and the dance. In Yekaterinburg I will perform this dance for nine dancers and two musicians performing “live” as a solo for the first time.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
In your performances you pay much attention to synthesis of arts. You use video installations and many other things. What do you think can the dance lose its primacy due to such variety of technologies?

Maida’s Comments:
Multi-dimensional work is difficult to accomplish in my opinion. The multiple aspects (science, technology, visual art installations, live music, other) should not be involved unless it is absolutely important to communicate the ideas – basis of the work presented requires the multiplicity of art forms and interaction with other disciplines. In the case of GLACIAL DRIFT, of course, we were performing in a gigantic installation created by an internationally famous architectural firm from NYC. In that case we were able to bring a human message about the destructive impact of the human race on ICEBERGS, something the exhibition did not have time to address. We were collaborators, but somewhat after the fact. The installation was completed just 15 days prior to our premiere performance.

It is also helpful if collaborators continue to work together. I have worked with many collaborators over several years (poets, animators, virtual artists, scientists, musicians (always), architects, historians). For example the two musicians in GLACIAL DRIFT have worked with me for many years and toured with me all over the world. John Driscoll was the company musician/composer for the first 8 years of the Company (1974 to 1981). Steve Hilmy has been the composer/musician for the past 8 to 10 years. They have been performing with the company together for the past two years. Tania Fraga, brilliant 3-D virtual artist has done two very large projects with me (Dance of the Auroras-Fire in the Sky). Dancers in those works manipulated the projected visual 3-D images – first with the wireless mouse and in the last project with the brain waves from the Emotiv helmet worn by a dancer.

I, myself, prefer real-time interactive relationship with multiple arts where all the collaborators are present and active during the performance. Those projects could not have existed without collaboration. Most of my projects are like that.

For me, however, dance is the central art form and there is never a question about that. For me dance is the great integrator in the arts. It is always the heart of all that I do.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
Year after year interest in science popularization deepens all over the world. Dancers and choreographers in their performances address recent achievements in scientific knowledge. What scientific fields do you work on?

Maida’s Comments:
My most recent project, MindFluctuations, was involved with neuroscience (Emotiv helmet interface made possible by neuroscience research). http://maidadance.com/works/mindfluctuations;

Dance of the Auroras – Fire in the Sky was made possible by NASA and ESA scientists. Four satellites were placed in orbit at the same time I began the 4-years of research for the project. Astonishing satellite images from NASA/ESA of the behavior of the Sun were integrated into the virtual art that was manipulated by the dancers on stage using the wireless mouse in performance. http://maidadance.com/works/dance-of-the-auroras-fire-in-the-sky-stage-work/

Laser Dance was a collaboration with the worlds, at least USA, first laser artist using laser as art. http://maidadance.com/works/laser-dance/ Fifty mirrors above the audience and the stage created a laser grid that was manipulated and interrupted by the dancer using his/her body and the stilts used during the performance.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
The popular culture phenomenon of the last few years became a girl from the “Chandelier” song video clip by Australian singer Sia. The dancer who struck everybody was eleven-year old Maddie Ziegler. Choreography was produced by Ryan Heffington. What do you think, do such projects contribute to the fact that modern choreography is perceived more not as exclusive art which is understood only by the elite, but as the dance self-expression language understood by many a man?

Maida’s Comments:
When I read about the Sia project in the newspaper, my first thought was toward the protection of the eleven year old dancer. I know how destructive media can be for the most mature persons. There is some argument that popular media has made concert dance or dance as art more acceptable and people don’t feel they have to “look for a message.” Dance in the USA seems to be more accepted and has a broader following now than in 1960s. The audience, except for ballet, seems to continue to be smaller than, perhaps, music and visual art. In many ways, dance as an art form is more challenging than, perhaps, other art forms. It takes a great deal of group effort and interaction to create something unique. I think this challenge is why we are seeing so many new ways to try to make choreography that do not demand hours and hours of rehearsal and perfection of gestures, movements, and group execution of materials. It is very expensive as an art form and, perhaps, the least financially support (outside of the ballet). I am happy there are many influences at this time. Sometimes, however, it makes it difficult to have any interest or focus on aesthetics. In the USA, dance criticism is rare. There is writing (blogs) but nothing equaling the intellectual writing when aesthetics was an issue.

I know this is a little off your question, but I have great admiration and respect for audiences. They are smart and challenge us as artists. My curiosity about the interaction of artist/audience has motivated my extensive international tours. As a child I was raised in the open “red earth” lands in Utah and the Southwest. I struggled for years with the audiences in Washington, DC who were bringing the view of urban East Coast America to my concerts that were “freewheeling” and probably audacious in their view of freedom and even disrespect for convention. It is an interesting topic – what does each new generation bring to the arts both through artists and through audiences.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
In recent years I noticed a profound interest here in Russia in the creativity of John Cage. His music is often used by Russian dancers as background music for their performances. What do you think exactly generates interest among the current generation of dancers in creativity of one of the most unusual American composers of the XX century?

Maida’s Comments
John Cage was a guru for my generation (1960’s). Generally speaking, John Cage is probably the most known American musician/composer who does not play rock or other popular music. In the USA few would use his music, but most know about his ideas and philosophy of indeterminacy and chance. There are many who practice his ideas today who do not necessarily ascribe them to Cage…..the ideas are just enveloped into practice by artists today. I intersected with John Cage before I graduated from College and have been associated with those ideas through John Driscoll (composer for Maida Withers Dance Construction Company starting in 1974). Really, I think other ideas are “trumping” those ideas now but, art in the USA was certainly liberated by Cage. In dance the extensive interest in physical feats, in non-dance vocabulary and others seem more predominate today

TRuslan Khisamutdinov Question:
Tell us about your literature preferences.

Maida’s Comments:
I like writing that engages philosophical and/or political thought. Very little is written in dance today about aesthetics, sadly, so we must find our language and ideas from other disciplines, perhaps, or from the writings of artists available on the Internet. I have great interest in global politics. I find the current global situation disturbing and follow developments closely.

I have been intensely engaged in the global environment movement since 1981. I follow all issue related to the destruction of the planet.

The books, The Body in Contemporary Art, and The Triumph of Anti-Art are current books I am reading for the course I teach, Trends in Performance Art. I am very interested in performance and performance art and have been since the 1970s. Some of my works are in the performance art genre.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov
What movies inspire you? What are your favorite directors?

Maida’s Comments:
Generally speaking, I see as many independent films as possible and as many foreign films as possible. Independent films have become part of the mainstream media now.

Most interesting mainstream movie for me this year was Hateful Eight directed by Quentin Tarantino. I know I should not like it due to the violence, but it was so brilliantly directed and each shot ingeniously selected. I also liked Revenant with Leonardo de Caprio. The photography and nature were so spectacular beyond belief. It was too long, but the perspectives on nature were incredible.

My daughter is a Senior Vice President for Creative Content (publicity and promotions) for SONY Pictures in Los Angeles so I see all the films with which she is involved (Ghostbusters (female version), Spiderman, James Bond, Angry Birds (animation) are a few of the films). I enjoyed the nonsense of Ghostbusters and the mix of animation and filming – the absurd freedom taken in the film. It was so full of cultural references and so humorous even though it was a chaotic mess. The film industry seems to be somewhat in trouble with the varied media formats and instant access on iPhone, etc. It will be interesting to see what film is doing in 10 years

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
If someone offers you to create a dance project the basis of which is one painting by any artist, one book by any writer or one movie by any director, what works of art would you choose?

Maida’s Comments:
Generally, I have created something new that never existed before rather than referencing already created work. However, I have deep respect for that process. It is a little hard for me to imagine having access to any collaborator(s) I could choose. I am quite careful in choosing since it is important for me to keep a sense of dance in the project.

At this time, I would choose content that would be best developed as a FILM with dance or performance work not a stage work. That would make it possible for me to work within the structure of the team used for film and have the support system required for creating film and, hopefully, the budget. Wouldn’t it be exciting to work with Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov – one continuous camera shoot would be ideal.

Maida Withers

Thank you for your responses!
Sincerely, Ruslan Khisamutdinov

ICEBERGS: Glacial Drift

Earth and Environment, Experimental, Group Choreography, Installation / Visual, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Museums/Galleries, Site Work, Turn of the Century (2000-2020), Work

ICEBERGS

National Building Museum
Washington, DC
presents

GLACIAL DRIFT PREMIERE / 2016

Cool Evening with ICEBERGS
Dance, Music, and Poetry in the Surreal Underwater-World of ICEBERGS

GLACIAL DRIFT was one of National Building Museum’s Block Party Late Nights that is part of its big summer installation programming for ICEBERGS designed by James Corner Field Operations (which also created New York’s High Line). ICEBERGS will take visitors underwater in a simulated glacial ice field.

GLACIAL DRIFT, a site-responsive performance of music, dance, and text, offers a delightful, yet introspective time in a spectacular constructed environment of nature away from the real world. GLACIAL DRIFT explores the boundaries between the magnificent beauty and wonder of icebergs and the impact of humans on the environment.

In this multi-sensory experience, a landscape unfolds through the rigorous and intricate choreography of Maida Withers for nine Dance Construction Company dancers as they perform and move through the exhibition connecting with the audience. GLACIAL DRIFT presents a range of emotions revealing the fun and audacity of dancers in colorful faux fur coats and sun glasses while exposing the more fragile aspects of nature.

A sonic architecture fills the immense space enveloping the ICEBERGS installation with live electronic music by John Driscoll, composer/sound artist, and Steve Hilmy, composer/musician, that embodies stillness and calm as well as the sound of calving of icebergs the size of Manhattan that crash and crumble into the sea. Compelling text by poets, David McAleavey and poet/sonosphere, Alex Caldiero re-ignite our memory and perception of time and place. (Photo by Aimee Fullman)

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Maida and the Company are known as pioneers for early explorations and ongoing innovations in creating dance in museums and architectural and environmental sites:
Lenin Museum (Krasnoyarsk, Russia)
Art Angar Center for Contemporary Art (Solovky Island, Russia)
Museum of Art Moderna/UN Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) International Contemporary Dance Conference and Performance Festival (Bytom, Poland)
White Sands and Coral Dunes (New Mexico & Utah)
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Holy Rood Cemetery, Art Museum of the Americas; Corcoran Gallery of Art; Washington Project for the Arts; Smithsonian’s International Gallery, National Air and Space Museum, Renwick Gallery (Washington, DC), among others.

Photos by Shaun Schroth
Crowd and musician photos by Aimee Fullman; Aerial photo by Virginia Quesada; Blue sea photo by Denaise L. Seals.

CHOREOGRAPHY
Maida Withers

ELECTRONIC MUSIC / SOUND INSTALLATION
Steve Hilmy and John Driscoll

POETRY/TEXT
David McAleavey and Alex Caldiero

DANCE
Maida Withers Dance Construction Company & Guest Artists

Felicia Avalos
Matthew Cumbie (GA)
Alicia Diaz (GA)
Anthony Gongora
Sammi Rosenfeld
Giselle Ruzany
Matthew Thornton (GA)
Eva Gustafson (intern)
Linda Ryan (intern)

Comments by Steve Hilmy, composer/musician:

“I’m using material – music and sound design – reworked, and Wagnerized, from the second section of a piece I created and performed with Maida Withers from 2006-2012: FareWell – To The End of the World As We Know It OR Dancing Your Way to Paradise! We performed this work in New Delhi, India; Nairobi, Kenya; Zagreb, Croatia; Puebla, Mexico; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Las Vegas, Nevada. The second section of Farewell deals with the Arctic and Antarctic. Have we passed the tipping point of humanity’s ability to control our impact on climate change, ice retreating on both poles and the destruction of the earths climate. My music for Glacial Drift immerses the dancers in icy wind, crumbling icebergs – the big melt. The dreadful, tragic destruction our species has dealt to the earth is abstracted and dramatized in this 20 minute work.”

David McAleavey, Poet

SAMPLE TEXT – David McAleavey

When it happens. If it happens
What happens?
It really happens.
#
Shimmering fragments:
the bird soaring in the sky
hunts for what’s missing
#
These sheer stripped-down shapes,
these cliff-like mountains of ice,
orphans in space-time.
#
Ice cliffs must crumble
icebergs must vanish: you must
change your life. Of course.
Vanishing, Vanishing
#
The tear that falls down –
falling down it embodies –
absorbs, is absorbed

Falling down / Falling down
#
Some things so hard, we
talk around them – so hard –
You can’t stare the sun down

SAMPLE TEXT, EXCERPT – Alex Caldiero

In a world where there’s no repetitions
and every action is performed only once, the first & last time, what would life be like in such a world In a world

wher th r’s n r p t t ns
nd v ry ct n s p rf rm d nly nc, th f rst
& l st t m , wh t w uld l f b l k

(CONTINUED)
(No.33 from “languageACTS” by Alex Caldiero)

ABOUT ICEBERGS

Opens July 2, through September 5
The National Building Museum offers a new, one-of-a-kind destination with ICEBERGS, designed by James Corner Field Operations. Representing a beautiful, underwater world of glacial ice spanning the Museum’s enormous Great Hall, the immersive installation features climbable bergs, “ice” chutes, caves and grottoes to explore, and much more. Start your visit at go.nbm.org/ICEBERGS

ICEBERGS (National Building Museum Web Page)
The installation is being built from re-usable construction materials, such as scaffolding and polycarbonate paneling, a material commonly used in building greenhouses. A “water line” suspended 20 feet high will bisect the vertical space, allowing panoramic views from high above the ocean surface and down below among the towering bergs. The tallest “bergy bit,” at 56 feet, will reach above the waterline to the third story balcony of the Museum. ICEBERGS will occupy a total area of 12,540 square feet.

This summer visitors can ascend a viewing area inside the tallest berg, traverse an undersea bridge, relax among caves and grottos on the ocean floor, sample shaved-ice snacks, and participate in unique educational programming highlighting landscape architecture, design, and environmental topics.

“ICEBERGS invokes the surreal underwater-world of glacial ice fields,” said James Corner, founder and director of James Corner Field Operations. “Such a world is both beautiful and ominous given our current epoch of climate change, ice-melt, and rising seas. The installation creates an ambient field of texture, movement, and interaction, as in an unfolding landscape of multiples, distinct from a static, single object.
James Corner Field Operations is an urban design, landscape architecture, and public realm practice based in New York City and known for projects such as New York’s High Line and Santa Monica’s Tongva Park. The firm was commissioned by the National Building Museum to create the temporary summer exhibit following last year’s popular BEACH installation, a playful structure that welcomed over 180,000 visitors during its two month run.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM
The Museum is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to advancing the quality of the built environment by educating people about its impact on their lives. Through its exhibitions, educational programs, online content, and publications, the Museum has become a vital forum for the exchange of ideas and information about the world we build for ourselves. Public inquiries: 202.272.2448 or visit www.nbm.org. Connect with us on Twitter: @BuildingMuseum and Facebook.

ICEBERGS construction, in progress

Dance and Politics: Couch Conversation

Museums/Galleries, Politics, Site Work, Turn of the Century (2000-2020), Voice and Text

2016 DANCE AND POLITICS: COUCH CONVERSATION & PERFORMANCE

Maida & Annika

International choreographers and activist artists, Maida Withers, Washington, DC, and Annika B. Lewis, Denmark, engage, irreverently, in dialogue and performance exploring questions of politics and culture, today, in the USA and Europe.

“Out of the box” artists, known for their controversial stage language, both body and word, entertain and surprise – no holds bared. The premiere performance at the Arts Club of Washington, DC revealed the obscene and ridiculous perverse notions of the USA 2016 Presidential election year antics. Annika and Maida are outraged and outrageous.

Audience members are invited to write questions, wad the papers, and thrown questions, comments, observations at the couch.

DSC2191MaidaProfile

Maida Withers – profane and profound
Annika B. Lewis – trivial and philosophical

Maida Withers / Dance Construction Company creates thought provoking works for stage, museums, site, interventions, and films – over 100 performances of breadth and vision that mix imagination and daring with a keen sense of formal structure and beauty. Dances reveal the process of creation with international collaborators in the arts, sciences, and technology who share her interest in innovation and experimentation. Withers choreographic philosophy is grounded in her life experiences, all things political, and as a dancer working with the bodies of dancers empowered by “out-of-the
box” notions of life and art. Her futuristic narratives couple social and political issues with dance technology, and interactive media. www.maidadance.com

Annika B Lewis / Kassandra Production creates subversive and relevant contemporary performing arts, in a skewed and subtle way – combining the trivial with the philosophical, pop art with fine art. She is an independent director/choreographer, actress, performance AnnikaBLewis_fotoJensPeterEngedal6x4_72 artist, singer, curator, producer and cultural entrepreneur. Annika’s works is characterized by a border defying and innovative artistic expression, with predilection for a complex stage language. She works with interventions and site specific locations, as well as in traditional theatre venues. She has within that framework produced, staged, directed, choreographed and toured over 25 productions in the intersection of theatre, dance and performance art. www.kassandra-production.dk

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Photos:
Pre-performance photos by Kirk Kristlibas
Performance photos by Mukul Ranjan

Anonyty / Parts Unknown

Experimental, Gender and Feminism, Improvisation, Museums/Galleries, Site Work, Technology and Dance, Turn of the Century (2000-2020)

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Photos by Shaun Schroth

2015 Anonyty explores the intimate boundary between our physical and digital identities, by bringing to life digital people that interact in our real world through movement and dance – a collaboration of Maida Withers and Brian Kane, co-authors.

Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, Felicia Avalos, Anthony Gongora, and Jezel Modell, perform interactions between the real and virtual, the dancers, and the guests during the Gala openings of the Washington Project for the Arts 40^th Anniversary Celebration in the new gallery in the JBG Companies’ Atlantic Plumbing development at 8th and V street NW, in the U Street Corridor, Washington, DC. Friday, November, 13, 2015 – VIP Event; Saturday, November 14, 2015 – General Public Celebration.

Full body digitally printed morph suits are created by Brian Kane, noted visual artist and fashion technologist, USA, and Amelia Zhang, Rhode Island School of Design. The body suits are completely covered with custom digital photography of persons other than the dancers which simulates the “pixelated” effect of digital images, bringing a privacy enhanced digital version of a real person moving in the real world, and interacting with real space.

Photos by Shaun Schroth (above)
Photos by Simone Schiess (below – Washington Project for the Arts 40th Anniversary Gala Celebration, Nov 14, 2015)

More photos available.

MindFluctuations

Conference, Experimental, Festival, Installation / Visual, Interactive Technology, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Residency, Stage Works, Technology and Dance, Turn of the Century (2000-2020), Work

MINDFLUCTUATIONS
DANCE, NEUROSCIENCE, VIRTUAL ART, LIVE MUSIC
A Java 3D application drives the participants within a metaphorical virtual reality journey
World Premiere / Lisner Auditorium
March 19, 2015
Washington, DC

MindFluctuations: Sections performed independently.

Monster Man: https://vimeo.com/128670434

Woman: https://vimeo.com/129210568

MindFluctuations, a groundbreaking collaboration between dance, neuroscience, 3D projected computer art, and live electronic music, continues pioneering choreographer Maida Withers‘ lifelong fascination as an artist with the connection of the human body and mind to interactive and innovative technology. In MindFluctuations, Maida Withers Dance Construction Company performs full-bodied, intricate choreography with eleven spectacular virtual worlds created by Tania Fraga, computer artist, São Paulo, Brazil. John Driscoll composer and sound artist, company music director from 1974-1980, and Steve Hilmy, composer and musician, company music director from 2005-present, create compelling music for the 90-minute opus through a live interactive process with the dancers to complete the multi-sensory world, the hallmark of Withers’ work for four decades. Dancers: Felicia Avalos, Ian Ceccarelli, Anthony Gongora, Mary Heath (understudy), Sammi Rosenfeld, Giselle Ruzany, Matthew Thornton.

Click to view: Full-length Performance (1:22:33)
For CYBERWORLDS Click HERE (Residency)

John Driscoll Audio Link: Jamille can you transfer this to this location??? https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/9rl6fbylfnvpa5f6jyhh7/ABs0P7QRmjfuY1BPxCNBUn0?rlkey=kwsd4ilpcz9i2ws5zl2vmj065&dl=0

Interactive Technology
MindFluctuations involves an innovative process of artistic engagement with virtual interactive experimental artworks that visualize the interface between dancers’ emotive and expressive states through a neural interface that has emerged from neuroscience research. The choreographic process features Brain Controlled Interfaces (BCI) interacting with dancers and computer art. A neural headset (Emotiv),
worn by the dancer, is used to digitize their emotional states that interface with the processes within virtual 3D environments in the computer. These interactions exist by visually transmitting the impact of the brainwaves captured by the BCI helmet into the performance arena in real time and/or through the projection of stored stimuli to create a moving and immersive environment for the participating performers and audience.

MindFluctuations was created through residencies in São Paulo, Brazil, February 2014, and Washington, D.C, March 2015. which enabled an international collaboration between Maida Withers and Tania Fraga, co-authors, Pedro Garcia, Java consultant programmer. Mauro Pichiliani, Brain Computer Interface technician and Donizetti Louro, mathematics consultant at the Institute of Mathematics and Art, São Paulo.

MindFluctuations Dance & 3D Worlds – Photographs (Dance Photos by Shaun Schroth; 3D worlds – Tania Fraga)

Program:
Opening – The Company
Part I The Egg: Giselle Ruzany, Felicia Avalos, Sammi Rosenfeld
Part II Blackness/Underworld: Felicia Avalos, Ian Ceccarelli, Alicia Diaz, Matthew Thornton
Part III Obsess: Felicia Avalos, Anthony Gongora, Giselle Ruzany, Sammi Rosenfeld
Part IV Turned Away: Giselle Ruzany, Sammi Rosenfeld
Part V Illusion – Is Anyone Out There? Alicia Diaz; Anthony Gongora, Matthew Thornton
Part VI Yield – Twisted Minds: Felicia Avalos, Ian Ceccarelli, Anthony Gongora, Mary Heath,
Sammi Rosenfeld, Giselle Ruzany
Part VII Offering: Maida Withers
Part IIX Monster Within: Anthony Gongora
Part IX Virtue Exposed: Felicia Avalos with Anthony Gongora, Ian Ceccarelli, Sammi Rosenfeld
Part X Whiteness/Transcendence: Giselle Ruzany with Felicia Avalos, Ian Ceccarelli, Alicia Diaz, Mary Heath, Matthew Thornton
Part XI Panspermia – Seeding the Universe: The Company

Kennedy Center Early Performance of MindFluctuations without interactive Helmet.

Maida Withers Dance Construction Company (MWDCCo) a 501(c) 3 federally tax exempt cultural arts organization founded in 1974 in Washington, DC. The Company is a vibrant artist-driven organization that mixes dance and performance with technology and media to create thought-provoking works for stage, museums, site, and film in a collaborative process with artists, scientists and others committed to a process of investigation and experimentation. The Company has been presented in Washington, DC. at the Kennedy Center, Lisner Auditorium, Warner Theatre, Dance Place, Joe’s Emporium, others, along with presentations by the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, International Gallery, Natural History Museum, Renwick Gallery of Art, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Art Museum of the Americas, Arlington Art Center, others. International tours in over 18 countries including Kenya, Russia, Poland, Norway, France, Germany, UK, Croatia, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, and Costa Rica – often under the sponsorship of U.S. Embassies, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Scandinavian Foundation, others. Dance film shorts have been shown at film festivals in Turkey, France, Brazil, Mexico, and stateside in California, Utah, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Between 1995 and 2009, MWDCCo curated the International Improvisation Plus+ Festival in Washington, DC, precursor to the Fringe Festival. Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company are the recipients of many awards and honors including the DC Mayor’s Arts Award (2001 and 2014). The Company’s archives and timeline feature four decades of choreography and artistic projects. http://maidadance.com.

MindFluctuations builds on MWDCCo’s previous path breaking interactive works with rotating loudspeakers, laser beams, wireless cameras, interactive cyber worlds, and video installations, always with original music created and performed live.

Artist/Collaborators

MAIDA WITHERS (co-author; choreographer and dancer) born in Kanab, Utah, descendant of pioneers who settled the area in 1850. Maida, a powerful and commanding dancer and performance artist, has created, since the 1960s, a distinctive body of original works for stage, museums, site events, and dance films – over 100 performances of breadth and vision for Maida Withers Dance Construction Company. Withers choreographic philosophy is grounded in her life experiences and as a dancer working with the bodies and personal histories of the dancers empowered by extravagant “out-of-the box” notions of life and art, works that reveal the process of creation. Maida, an early leader as an arts activist, couples social and political issues with dance, performance art, technology and interactive media. These works often embody a futurist narrative. International projects, which began in the 1960s when she studied in Berlin with Mary Wigman and at the Folkswangschule in Essen Werden, Germany, have continued with projects and tours in Europe and Russia, Latin America, and Asia, tours often sponsored by U.S. Embassies and the Department of State. Her distinctive dance film shorts have been selected for showing at festivals internationally and in the USA. Maida is a Professor at the George Washington University Department of Theatre and Dance where she was instrumental in establishing recognized BA, MA, and MFA programs in dance. She is the recipient of the Pola Nirenska Artistic Achievement Award, Dance Place Education Award, Dance in the Desert Lifetime Achievement Award, others. Maida received a “Special Recognition” Award at the DC 29^th Mayor’s Awards Ceremony, October 29, 2014. Maida is the mother of Kristin, Luke, Eric and Marc Withers, and proud grandmother of Milan Mercury, and Nica Withers. maidadance.com,

TANIA FRAGA (Brazilian architect and computer artist) Holds a Ph.D. on the Communication and Semiotics Program at the Catholic University of Sao Paulo; vice-president of Sao Paulo Institute of Mathematics and Arts. She developed a Senior Post Doctoral research project at School of Communication and Arts of the University of Sao Paulo with a research grant from FAPESP, Sao Paulo Foundation for Research Support. In the course of 1999, Tania developed a Post Doctoral research project at the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Interactive Arts and Science Technology and Art Research, UK, with a research grant from the Brazilian Agency for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel. Until 2003 she was Professor and Coordinator of the Graduation Studies of the Art Institute at University of Brasilia, Brazil. Since 2006 she is member of the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium, USA. In 2003 she was member of the Advisory Research Committee of the Banff New Media Centre, Canada. She was Visiting Scholar at the Computer Science Department at George Washington University, Washington DC, in 1991/1992, in 2010, and 2011. She was Artist-in-Residence, 1986, at Bemis Foundation, USA, with a grant from the Fulbright Commission. She works with computer art and has been showing and publishing her work in many national and international exhibitions, lectures, workshops, seminars and congresses. Her research is related to virtual reality and the creation of artworks looking for the integration of affection among humans, virtual and physical objects through computer technology. Recent research deals with the integration of computer based artworks with neural technologies. Such artworks weave knowledge and artistic processes with computational technologies aiming creative results integrating art, science and technology; results with poetic, aesthetic and functional qualities; results exploring emergency and agency for their construction, design and set up. http://taniafraga.art.br; http://taniafraga.wordpress.com/

JOHN DRISCOLL (composer/musician) is a founding member of Composers Inside Electronics (CIE) and collaborated on and managed David Tudor’s Rainforest IV project since its inception in 1973. Composer/sound artist John Driscoll’s work features custom-built electronics and robotic instruments. Driscoll was musical director for Maida Withers Dance Construction Co. from 1974 – 1980, and has received dance commissions for his music including: the Merce Cunningham Dance Co., Douglas Dunn & Dancers, and Maida Withers Dance Construction Company. He has toured extensively in the US and Europe with: CIE, Douglas Dunn & Dancers, David Tudor, numerous composers, and also as a solo performer. His work involves custom built electronics, robotic instruments, compositions and sound installations for unique architectural spaces, rotating loudspeakers, and music for dance. In 2014, he was an artist-in-residence at Harvestworks (NYC) creating a new performance work “Voices in My Head” using highly focused sound and was the David Tudor composer-in-residence at Mills College. Website: http://composers-inside–electronics.net/jdriscoll/home/BIO.htm

STEVE HILMY (composer/musician) born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Steve received his Bachelor of Arts, 1984, from George Washington University, and his Master’s of Music in Composition, 1991, from The Peabody Conservatory of Music of The John Hopkins University. He studied composition with William Albright at the University of Michigan and with Jean Eichelberger Ivey and Chen Yi at the Peabody Conservatory. Hilmy has been on the faculty of George Washington University Music Department since 1992, where he is Director of the Electronic and Computer Music Studio. He has won awards from such organizations as the Southeastern Composers League, ASCAP, BMI, the Peabody Conservatory, and The Virginia Center for Creative Arts, including First Prize in the Philip Slates Memorial Composition Contest for “Icarus Falling” (piano and electronics, 1989); the Gustav Klemm Prize for Composition from the Peabody Conservatory in 1991; and 2nd place prize in the Prix d’été II composition competition at the Peabody Conservatory for “Us” (tenor saxophone and electronics, 1999). Hilmy has worked with Maida Withers Dance Construction Company for more than nine years, improvising in events and creating music for evening length multimedia dance works and dance film shorts, and touring in Russia, Kenya, Mexico, Croatia and India.

DAVID PAGE (sculptor) Born in Cape Town, South Africa, David Page earned a National Diploma in Fine Arts from the Cape Tecnikon in 1986 and received an MFA from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2002. Recent solo shows include: The Object is Dead at Jordan Faye Contemporary in Baltimore and God and Lunchmeat at Old Dominion University. Group shows include: Fools! Kings, Clowns & Revolutionaries, Gallery 31, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC “From Here to There: Parallel Trajectories” Stedman Gallery, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, “Simultaneous Presence, Sculpture at Evergreen 6”, Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Evergreen Museum & Library, Baltimore, MD and “Bad Ideas Dead Ends and Guilty Pleasures” at the Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington DC. Other awards include the Trawick Prize in 2004 and the University of Maryland’s Art for Peace Award in 2001, which included the commission of a small sculptural object that was presented to Nelson Mandela upon his visit to the university. Mr. Page teaches at American University and the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington DC and lives in Baltimore with his wife (and jewelry designer) Lauren Schott and pit-bull Voltaire. http://davidpageartist.com

IZZY EINSIDLER (lighting designer) Resident Lighting Designer for the Lisner Auditorium and JMA, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Lighting in the Theater Department. Originally from New York City, he has designed over 200 productions/events all over the world including plays, dance, musicals, operas, concerts, conferences, television and film. Most recent lighting design/M.E. work at the Lisner includes: Ben Folds (solo tour), The Colbert Report (with President Obama), Matisyahu (accoustic), Diego El Cigala, Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, Partnership for a Healthier America (with Michelle Obama), Youssou N’Dour, and numerous book events including Hillary Clinton, Stephen King, and David Sedaris. He holds an MFA from Brandeis University and is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.

FELICIA AVALOS (dancer) is from Huntsville, Texas where she received her BFA in Dance from Sam Houston State University. Her last semester, she completed the Dance Abroad Argentina program where she began her tango training. After returning to the states, Felicia moved to Washington, DC, where she worked with Sharna Fabiano Tango Company, Mich Mash Productions, and Taurus Broadhurst Dance Company. In northern Israel she trained with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company for ten months. Felicia is currently attending the MFA Dance program at The George Washington University, where she was awarded a University Fellowship. Along with dancing in Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, she dances with Maru Montero Dance Company.

IAN CECCARELLI (dancer, understudy) Born in New York City, Ian began his study of dance at the Kennet School of Dance and Gymnastics in Goshen, NY where he danced in numerous recitals and yearly productions of The Nutcracker. Ian has studied with Mary Rotella as a part of The Masters School Dance Company, Ronnie Carney with New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Diane Madden of the Trisha Brown Dance Company. He is a senior at George Washington University studying political science and dance He has performed Maida’s works –Veiled Threat and Yesterday’s Garlands and Yesterday’s Kisses. He has choreographed for the George Washington University’s Spring 2014 production of DanceWorks.

ALICIA DIAZ (dancer) Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Diaz is Assistant Professor of Dance at The University of Richmond and co-director of Agua Dulce Dance Theater (ADDT) with movement artist Matthew Thornton. She is also an M.F.A. candidate at The George Washington University, where she was awarded a University Fellowship. She has danced professionally with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Donald Byrd/The Group, Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theater, Andanza: Compañía Puertorriqueña de Danza Contemporánea, Alice Farley Dance Theater, and Contemporary Motions, as well as numerous independent choreographers. Her choreography has been presented in the United States, Latin America and Spain. Recently, she has collaborated with choreographer Steven Iannacone and with Thayer Jonutz and Catch Me Dance Project in multimedia and site-specific projects.l

ANTHONY GONGORA (dancer, filmmaker, visual artist) an interdisciplinary artist who is compelled by driving curiosity and imagination to create. His ongoing quest to fully explore and understand life has been expressed through his fingertips on computer keyboards, canvasses and clay, and also through the soles of his feet dancing on stages that traverse the globe. Gongora is a choreographer, performer, visual artist and educator, currently teaching at The University of the District of Columbia as an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Art in the school of Mass Media Visual & Performing Arts and also at the George Washington University Department of Theatre and Dance. He has received several awards for his choreography, which has been performed in venues such as Joyce SoHo, NYC; Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago; St. Mark’s Church, Danspace Project, NYC and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Performance experience dancing includes Troika Ranch (NYC), Mordine & Company Dance Theatre (Chicago), Jan Erkert & Dancers (Urbana) and Bob Eisen Dance (Chicago).

MARY HEATH (dancer, intern) is an undergraduate student at George Washington University double majoring in Dance and Communications. She studied at Scottsdale School of Ballet for 10 years before moving to DC. Her choreography has been performed by the Desert Dance Company (Scottsdale, AZ) and by peers at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School’s summer intensive.

GISELLE RUZANY (dancer) was born in New York City. She grew up in Rio de Janeiro and lived there up to the age of 23 before returning to the US. She has been immersed in art and culture from a young age in Europe and Brazil. Art and Dance have been part of her life, and she received performance and choreographic awards at the early age of 12, as well as terra-cotta sculpture prizes by age 18. She has been dancing professionally since 1987 and teaching dance from an authentic model, on and off, since 1990. She has worked with Maida since 1995. With Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, she has performed in Paris, New York, Seattle and Brazil. Giselle is currently an adjunct professor in dance at GWU. She is also a licensed professional counselor with a private practice in Woodley Park, where she works from an embodied base, treating trauma, depression, anxiety and other psychological and somatic symptoms: www.gestaltdance.com. Giselle is a GWU alumna and an MA graduate from Naropa University with a postgraduate degree in Gestalt Therapy and a certificate in EMDR.

SAMMI ROSENFELD (dancer) returned to her hometown of Washington, DC after completing a BFA in Dance with a minor in Kinesiology at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Rosenfeld has choreographed and produced the evening-length shows Shades (2012) and Nicking the Outside Edge (2013) and has had her work, All Views Are Partial (2013), toured around eastern Michigan. She recently was an apprentice for Dana Tai Soon Burgess and Co. (2013-2014). She currently teaches creative movement to children of varying ages and developmental abilities. Rosenfeld is a Rehabilitation Service Specialist at a Virginia based psychiatric center. She joined Maida Withers Dance Construction Company in March of 2014.

MATTHEW THORNTON (dancer) is a movement artist who combines dance, theater, somatic practice, martial arts and partnering for training, performance, and choreography. Thornton performed internationally with Pilobolus Dance Theater in concert dance, commercial work, and at the 79th Academy Awards. He has worked as a performer and teacher for Pilobolus since 2003. Previous dance companies include Jody Oberfelder, Freespace Dance, Alice Farley Dance Theater, and Contemporary Motions. Matthew Thornton taught at Hope College and joined The University of Richmond’s faculty as Assistant Professor of Dance in Fall 2011, where he currently teaches Capoeira, Contact Improvisation, Outdoor Training, and sets choreography for University Dancers and UR Theatre Productions. Thornton co-founded Agua Dulce Dance Theater with dancer, choreographer and UR dance faculty Alicia Díaz, creating work for concert dance, outdoor environments, multimedia, and site-specific projects.

“Brain Computer Interface for Artworks” Statement by Tania Fraga
How to maximize expression, aesthetic and poetic qualities in order to create something meaningful using neuron data in artworks? First we need to understand which possibilities are available and their logistic difficulties to set up a framework to program a customized implementation for such endeavor. Therefore, we looked for a device complex enough to allow reliable data and simple enough to allow manipulation and be used for non-technical interactors. Second, and the most important feature of such artwork, in our opinion, is its aesthetic and poetic qualities. The chosen device after trying the commercial available ones was the Emotiv headset¹.

What does this device allow? It permits to read facial expressions, emotional states and a few cognitive data related to movements. After researching the results of such data we arrive at the conclusion that the most interesting for an artwork would be to use its affective suite. As artists we are interested in answering the former question asked above.

The second step was to find what in the digitalized data could allow expressive and poetic results without being too literal. The French thinker Edmund Couchot classified interaction as exogenous and endogenous. Exogenous being the literal question and answer paradigm we are used to have when working with computers; endogenous being the autonomous interaction among computer agents without any human control. As artists we were looking for a kind of symbiosis; the human acting in its total potential using the computer to expand their possibilities; the machine using these human emotions to create real time 3D virtual environments.

Therefore we have come up with the concept of exoendogenous interactivity. What is this? After the computer digitalizes the interactor emotional input data in an exogenous way this data is used by autonomous endogenous processes. What could be really meaningful in this process? We concluded that if the interactor’s emotions could interfere with the behavior of any autonomous agent we would be in the path for a kind of interesting human-machine symbiosis; thus the research for such has begun.

The first result we had of such symbiosis was the robot artwork Caracolomibile²built with an award received from the Brazilian Cultural Institute Itau, in 2010. Following this we have begun to develop a customized programed implementation using Java3D^TM API to create a set of virtual interactive world domains in which autonomous endogenous process use emotional interactor´s data to interfere with the behavior of agents implemented using growth, collision dection, fractal and flock algorithms. Last we are still in a research stage for the use of plants to extend its potential possibilities. This research is being done with the collaboration of artists from the Laboratory Nano from the Fine arts school at University of Rio de Janeiro.

The Brain computer interface (BCI) for the implementation was done with the collaboration of the software engineer Mario Pichiliani, the Java programmer Pedro Garcia, the mathematician Donizetti Louro and the support of the Institute of Mathematics and Art from São Paulo³. The choreographer Maida Withers considered the use of this implementation in performances would allow us to extract its most unfathomable potential. That is what MindFluctuations is about. That is what we are working to achieve now.

Offering

Experimental, Installation / Visual, Interactive Technology, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Live Music, Original Music, Post Modernism, Solo Choreography, Stage Works, Technology and Dance, Turn of Century 2000 to 2020, Turn of the Century (2000-2020), Work

MindFluctuations: Offering (05:56) (2015)
Solo from MindFluctuations, a work created and performed by Maida Withers, co-authored with virtual worlds created by Tania Fraga, 3D Computer Artist, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

MindFluctuations: Offering
Choreography and performance by Maida Withers
Costume by Maida Withers
Music by John Driscoll and Steve Hilmy, live
Virtual images (including urban photograph) created by Tania Fraga

Offering places emphasis on the gift or offering each person brings into existence through their life and talents. The visual world projected behind the dancer features a photo, shot by Tania Fraga, of a musician who comes to the street daily wearing a helmet of his own creation and sits on a chair performing live music with his accordion. This music is what he could offer, just as Maida was offering her art, her life, her beliefs through her performance and the power of the arts to communicate values, knowledge, and beliefs – a stamina for life and art.

Maida Withers wears the helmet during her live performance. A system designed by Tania to interact with images in the computer that are projected live on stage.

Street Musician playing the accordian wearing a self-made mask

Salon – Little Salon

Work

2015, February 28, 2015 Evening Little Salon Event for the Arts and Social Engagement

MWDCCo invited to give informal performance in historic high level (house of prostitution) in Wasington, DC. Group of interested (mostly middle aged) patrons of the arts meet in different interesting DC homes to enjoy performance, art, and the company of others of similar interests.

MWCDDo performed improvisations based on MindFluctuations in the large main room of what was originally a house of prostitution for the wealthy and elite.

Invitation: “My name’s Chris Maier and I run a one-of-a-kind monthly creative event called Little Salon. each salon takes place in a different home, often in a different neighborhood in DC, and aims to expose the 100 or so guests to small doses of the best-of-the-best creative work being generated here in DC. Every event is curated and every performance ranges from 6–10 minutes, followed by a lively Q&A from the very engaged audience. Below I’ll include some links to our site and media clips that will help you get a better sense of what we’re up to.”

MASQUERADE BALL – Blind Whino (40th Anniversary Celebration)

Exhibition, Installation / Visual, Live Music, Museums/Galleries, Original Music, Post Modernism, Site Work, Turn of Century 2000 to 2020, Turn of the Century (2000-2020), Work

2014 – In celebration of Maida Withers Dance Construction Company’s 40th anniversary, Art Whino presented a Masquerade Ball at Blind Whino: SW Arts Club, full of mystery and surprise. This full sensory experience combined performance art with experimental dance, live music, and a silent art auction where artist will paint Masquerade masks the audience will wear in this moving art exhibit.
Embracing the spirit of the night’s ambiance, dress code required masquerade masks along with peoples most eclectic outfit to impress. Once you entered Blind Whino you became part of an ongoing performance as members of the audience had the dance company interweaved in it to break into spontaneous dance before your eyes throughout all the spaces in the building. As performers and guests mingled in anonymity, the silent auction masks took life as they moved throughout the building as people wear them. This night of celebration was complete with live music sets and drinks that complimented the unique immersive experience.

Invite: Come dressed in your most eclectic gear as you join us for a full night of music on two floors, performances all night long, art exhibit and other surprises!

Dance Construction Company members performed excerpt from MindFluctuations during the evening and also improvised dances with each other and with members of the audience incognito in masks for a great evening. Jonathan Model and musicians improvised music featuring drumming for audience participation.
DCCo’s 40th anniversary was a huge and fantastik event for all who came to celebrate dance and life!”
THANKS TO SHANE POMAJAMBO

MWDCCO: Felicia Avalos, Ian Ceccarelli, Anthony Gongora, Mary Heath, Sammy Rosenfeld, Giselle Ruzany

Giselle Ruzany

Ian Ceccarelli

Photos also available in black and white

Trans Action – ART LIVES HERE. OR NOT!

Site Work

2014 – Creative Placemaking Initiative Takes Site-Specific Dance into Hyattsville, MD

“Art Lives Here celebrates Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company’s pivotal role in the 1970s dance revolution that became known as site-specific work.”

Mount Rainier, MD: On September 20th at 8:30 pm Maida Withers Dance Construction Company will be joined by electronic musician/composer Steve Hilmy and Enoch Chan, lighting designer with Deviated Theatre. , in the new location for Gateway Arts District arts organization, Art Works Now, at the old Marche Florists building, 4800 Rhode Island Ave in Hyattsville, MD. Withers, a pioneer and innovator of site-specific work in the world of dance, proposed a concept to the Art Lives Here partners in January 2014 that engages audiences with the question, “does art live here?” and “what does it mean if art lives here?” The piece, entitled “Trans Action” allows the audience to decide if “art,” female dancer Giselle Ruzany, survives the onslaught of seven dancers in business suits attempting to dominate and suppress her. Withers asks, “audiences and artists to get down and get dirty and help make art happen…a plan to keep art alive!” “The intimacy of participation by the audience in a site location seems to forever change the artist and the audience view of the space and feeling about art, dance in this case. It can be liberating for all when dance happens in places other than the formal stage.” (Maida Withers)

Art Works Now Executive Director Barbara Johnson and Joe’s Movement Emporium Executive Director Brooke Kidd were collaborators with the potential for a creative placemaking occurrence. Art Works Now has struggled with the Historic Preservation Commission in moving forward with plans for renovation, a perfect opportunity to use dance to transform the space and engage the community with it’s potential. By breaking the boundaries of space, movement, and classic passive role of the audience, Withers intends to change the sense of space.

Article on the history of Art Lives Here in Mt. Rainier, MD (MWDCCo photo) https://artlivesheremd.wordpress.com/art-lives-here-portraits/years-in-the-making/

Withers also presented a free discussion and film presentation September 17th at 7:30 pm

at Joe’s Movement Emporium entitled “ ”. (See Event)

These two events were part of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Maida Withers Dance Construction Company in 1974 in Washington, DC. The event is made possible by funding from Art Lives Here via Joe’s Movement Emporium.

Ascenso – Buenos Aries, Argentina

Eras, Films, Genre, Improvisation, Reconciliation (2020-Current), Site Work

Photos by:

ASCENSO
https://vimeo.com/556604884

2014 Maida was in Argentina showing dance films in a university seminar. She became acquainted with a musician, dancer, filmmaker, Maximiliano Wille, and became involved with an art and technology event between two universities in Argentina.

Maxi invited Maida to do a moving interview with Arceli Marquez, dancer with A.Mov.Er Company (http://www.amover.me) in the Objeto-a Gallery (Lujan Oulton). Raw footage of the interview/dance is available at https://vimeo.com/554723257 (unedited, raw footage).

Ascenso: Arceli and Maida continued to improvise in silence in the gallery up the stairs and eventually on the second floor. The gallery was newly created by Lujan Oulton (http://www.objeto-a.com.ar). We were video taped by Maxi and other filmmakers/dancers at that time. Ascenso is a video short of the duet improvisation.

Maxi is a specialist in the Isadora computer program for creating dance. He is such a fine , talented, and beautiful person. I am so grateful to Maxi for his generosity and kindness to me.

https://vimeo.com/556604884

Woman_Her

Uncategorized

Woman_Her (2015) is a 7:00 minute duet by Giselle Ruzany and Samantha (Sammie) Rosenfeld, Dance Construction Company dancers, that is based on Giselle’s Ruzany’s solo for MindFluctuation’s virtual world #03 created by Tania Fraga, Sao Paulo, Brazil, that features a woman standing with her back to the audience surrounded by pink musical notes. For Woman_Her, the 3d animation is not present but may be as this work is incorporated into MindFluctuations. Music, A Hall is All, is by John Driscoll.

Woman/ Her (Duet version, based on MindFluctuations was titled Her)

Giselle Ruzany Wo/man solo became Wo/man HER as a duet with Sammie Rosenfeld

_DSC1113SammiR8x10
Sammie (Samantha) Rosenfeld

A Moving Interview, Maida Withers, Argentina

Films, Interactive Technology, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Interviews, Site Work, Technology and Dance, Turn of the Century (2000-2020)

Note: Maida had traveled many times to Brazil, starting with the United Nation’s Earth Summit in 1992. She discovered that the price to fly to Argentina was very affordable from Brazil, so that instigated her travels there. Lujan Oulton, with her retired American businessman father, built a museum that was used for the duet improvisation, below. Lujan is a cultural producer specializing in experimental and artgames. There was a “high tech” group that included Maida in their experiments when she was there. Maximiliana Wille, pianist and filmmaker for the University dance program, housed Maida and was very instrumental in her projects there: A.Mov.Er organization. (2014)

MOVING INTERVIEW

Web page in Argentina

Includes video and descriptions: https://productoraobjetoa.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/entrevista-performatica-a-maida-withers/

Original Footage

Original unedited footage – Maida improvised talking and dancing as Arceli Marquez, asked questions. The footage here is unedited. It contains the total interview (55:00 minutes)

Three minute version

YouTube document interview:

(short 3:00 interview by Maxi Willi ) 3:00

Entrevista Performática a Maida Withers

The video below shows the technical crew and then Maida improvising starting with, “I am a desert Rat! I was born…” Maida goes on to talk about living her life including ideas of spontaneity, embarrassment, shame, all the spectrum of human condition. This edit includes cameras to give a perspective of the process, as well as improv with dancer on the stairs, some verbal explorations as well as interactions with technology and music.

04:20 footage of Maida in a MOVING interview with Arceli Marquez, dancer in Argentina.
Source: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tffchbn378ms47p/maida.wmv

2014 – “A Moving Interview…” Maida Withers participated in an interview sponsored by A.Mov.Er and Lujan Oulton, Objeto-á Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Maida was in Argentina following the MindFluctuations residency in Sao Paulo, Brazil at the Institute of M

“Ascenso…una improvisación”, es un momento entre dos bailarinas. En su paso por Buenos AIres, la bailarina y coreógrafa norteamericana Maida Withers realizó diferentes actividades artísticas. Junto Araceli Marquez, “Ascenso…” es una de las producciones conjuntas entre A.MO.VER y Maida Withers.

A.Mov.Er Comments:
“Maida Withers. Dancer, choreographer, performer, visual and multimedia artist … mother.”

“The collective AMOVER take this brief stay in Argentina of Maida, to create this work, bordering between performatic + interview and documentary. leaving the common place, responses involve the body that gives movement to the words … talks about the creative process, the use of, and research into new technologies. art as a way of life. Site in specific… among other things. Her admirable vitality, is a source of inspiration for new generations.”

Maida’s comments:
Maida answered questions related to art and technology in a two hour interview for A.Mov.Er. The request was to talk about her artistic process and insight into the merging of dance and technology.

Maida spoke and moved in a stream-of-consciousness fashion while being interviewed by Arceli Marquez, Argentine dancer. The interview was videotaped and the “live” video was immediately projected back into the performance space of Maida and Arceli. The video was interfacing with the “Isadora” technology program altering the images.

Project organizers and video artists: Maximiliana Wille, Adrian Salinas, and Lujan Oulton.

More Links:

www.objeto-a-com.ar

www/amover.me

Entrevista Performática a Maida Withers

Web page includes photos of the residency.

See Ascenso (maidadance.com/works/ascenso.
Improvisation performance, film short,

MindFluctuations Numeric Variations Residency Brazil

Installation / Visual, Residency, Stage Works, Work

2014 – Maida Withers participated in a residency at the Institute of Mathematics and Art (Instituto de Matematica e Arte) in São Paulo, Brazil in February 2014. As a passionate advocate for the collaboration of art and technology, she and several artists and scholars explored experimental art with a brain controlled interface. She had the opportunity to perform with the Emotiv Neuro Headset (http://emotiv.com) at the Institute as research for MindFluctuations, seeking integration with the dancer wearing the Headset, the 3D animation impacted autonomously in the computer, and projection of the animation as an immersive performance environment. See select examples of Tania Fraga’s computer art (Numeric Variations – cyberworlds) below.

During her residency, Maida also toured with Ederson and Mirtes Dance Theatre Company in São Carlos, Brazil, a university city about 2 hours away from São Paulo where MWDCCO has previously shown Dance of the Auroras – Fire in the Sky Documentary and where the company has performed in a festival twice in the past.

Maida also participated in an interview about her work with “Objeto-a,” a center devoted to art and technology in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The interview was videotaped and projected back into the the interview area with the video being manipulated with the Isadora video program See Archives).
Maida Withers and Tania Fraga taking a break for pizza.

Testing the new Emotiv Helmet

Computer verifies the Emotiv connection to the wearer’s skull

Yesterday’s Garlands and Yesterday’s Kisses-2013

Foundation Period (60s to 80s), Live Music, Original Music, Post Modernism, Stage Works

2013 – An eighteen-minute segment of Yesterday’s Garlands and Yesterday’s Kisses reconstructed on George Washington University dancers and performed on DanceWorks November 14, 15, 16, 2013 in Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC.

Originally choreographed by Maida Withers with founders of the Dance Construction Company. Original music by John Driscoll performed for the first time in 1974, Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC. Much of the original work was improvised around specific melodramatic gestures presented in a dadaistic manner. John Driscoll, music director for the Company from 1974 to 1981, is performing again for the first time in Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre in 30 years when GW students performed this excerpt as part of the 2014-15 MWDCCo 40th anniversary season.

See original, 1974 Yesterday’s Garlands and Yesterday’s Kisses on maidadance for more information.

Yesterday’s Garlands and Yesterday’s Kisses (2013)
Choreographer/Director: Maida Rust Withers
Composer/Musician: John Driscoll (original score by Driscoll)
Assistant Stage Manager: Angela Mariana Schöpke
Costume Designer: Reema Al-BawardMusic: John Driscoll; Maxwell Deem, vocals
Dancers:
Ian Ceccarelli (original solo by John Bailey)
Nicole Colameta (original solo by Maida Withers)
Cat McCormack (original solo by Liz Lerman)
Rebecca Melvin (original solo by JoAnne Sellars)
Ben Sanders (original solo by Brooke Andrews)

Choreographed by Maida Withers Dance Construction Company founding members with music by John Driscoll and performed for the first time in 1975 in Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre. Much of the original work was improvised around specific melodramatic/choreographed gestures presented in a dadaistic manner.

John Driscoll, music director for the Company from 1974 to 1981, is performing again in the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theater for the first time in 30 years. GW dancers will perform Yesterday’s Garlands and Yesterday’s Kisses (excerpt) in 2014 as part of MWDCCo 40th anniversary season, as well.

Small Format Contemporary Dance Festival Yekaterinburg History Museum* Yekaterinburg, Russia

ICEBERGS: Fault Line* August 26, 2016 @ 7:00 pm Panel Discussion: August 28, 2016 at noon

Interview of Maida Withers by Ruslan Khisamutdinov, Russian journalist, regarding Maida’s view of dance in Russia past and present:

Interview in Russian language: http://культура.екатеринбург.рф/articles/569/i193372/

Interview in English:

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question: I read that you visited Russia for more than eleven times. How in general and specifically can you describe the contemporary dance situation in Russia?

(2)Please view Tours and Projects in Russia to see the main activities of Maida Withers in Russia: http://maidadance.com/russian-tours-and-projects/. This information gives you a sense of my experiences in Russia.

There is an expected maturation and leveling out, expected, when any new movement or discovery of change occurs.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question: You had some projects created in Russia. What inspired you when working on performances in Russia?

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question: This year Ekaterina Zharinova invited you to Yekaterinburg for Small-format contemporary dance festival. Have you ever been to Yekaterinburg before and what do you expect from the festival?

Dance in Museums is popular now in the USA and it appears to be the same in Russia. Museums are happy to have dance bring in new audiences.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question: 4. You have been working a lot with foreign students. Is the dance language is international? How do the dance perception and understanding differ among your students from different countries?

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question I heard a lot about your latest project in one of the museums of Washington. You prepared hard for it and as far as I know its opening was quite a success. Can you tell us what this project is about?

Maida’s Comments: Please view the web page on the recent GLACIAL DRIFT music/dance/poetry project for the GREAT HALL in the Smithsonian’s National Building Museum: http://maidadance.com/works/glacial-drift/

I did not dance in GLACIAL DRIFT. I was the “voice” adding text to the music and the dance. In Yekaterinburg I will perform this dance for nine dancers and two musicians performing “live” as a solo for the first time.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question: In your performances you pay much attention to synthesis of arts. You use video installations and many other things. What do you think can the dance lose its primacy due to such variety of technologies?

I, myself, prefer real-time interactive relationship with multiple arts where all the collaborators are present and active during the performance. Those projects could not have existed without collaboration. Most of my projects are like that.

Maida’s Comments: My most recent project, MindFluctuations, was involved with neuroscience (Emotiv helmet interface made possible by neuroscience research). http://maidadance.com/works/mindfluctuations;

TRuslan Khisamutdinov Question: Tell us about your literature preferences.

I have been intensely engaged in the global environment movement since 1981. I follow all issue related to the destruction of the planet.

The books, The Body in Contemporary Art, and The Triumph of Anti-Art are current books I am reading for the course I teach, Trends in Performance Art. I am very interested in performance and performance art and have been since the 1970s. Some of my works are in the performance art genre.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov What movies inspire you? What are your favorite directors?

Maida’s Comments: Generally speaking, I see as many independent films as possible and as many foreign films as possible. Independent films have become part of the mainstream media now.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question: If someone offers you to create a dance project the basis of which is one painting by any artist, one book by any writer or one movie by any director, what works of art would you choose?

Maida Withers

Thank you for your responses! Sincerely, Ruslan Khisamutdinov

National Building Museum Washington, DC presents GLACIAL DRIFT PREMIERE / 2016

Cool Evening with ICEBERGS Dance, Music, and Poetry in the Surreal Underwater-World of ICEBERGS

Photos by Shaun Schroth Crowd and musician photos by Aimee Fullman; Aerial photo by Virginia Quesada; Blue sea photo by Denaise L. Seals.

CHOREOGRAPHY Maida Withers

ELECTRONIC MUSIC / SOUND INSTALLATION Steve Hilmy and John Driscoll

POETRY/TEXT David McAleavey and Alex Caldiero

DANCE Maida Withers Dance Construction Company & Guest Artists

David McAleavey, Poet SAMPLE TEXT – David McAleavey

Falling down / Falling down # Some things so hard, we talk around them – so hard – You can’t stare the sun down

SAMPLE TEXT, EXCERPT – Alex Caldiero In a world where there’s no repetitions and every action is performed only once, the first & last time, what would life be like in such a world In a world

This summer visitors can ascend a viewing area inside the tallest berg, traverse an undersea bridge, relax among caves and grottos on the ocean floor, sample shaved-ice snacks, and participate in unique educational programming highlighting landscape architecture, design, and environmental topics.

MINDFLUCTUATIONS DANCE, NEUROSCIENCE, VIRTUAL ART, LIVE MUSIC A Java 3D application drives the participants within a metaphorical virtual reality journey World Premiere / Lisner Auditorium March 19, 2015 Washington, DC

MOVING INTERVIEW

Web page in Argentina

Original Footage

Three minute version

Entrevista Performática a Maida Withers

Small Format Contemporary Dance Festival
Yekaterinburg History Museum*
Yekaterinburg, Russia

**ICEBERGS: Fault Line* August 26, 2016 @ 7:00 pm
Panel Discussion: August 28, 2016 at noon**

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
I read that you visited Russia for more than eleven times. How in general and specifically can you describe the contemporary dance situation in Russia?

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
You had some projects created in Russia. What inspired you when working on performances in Russia?

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
This year Ekaterina Zharinova invited you to Yekaterinburg for Small-format contemporary dance festival. Have you ever been to Yekaterinburg before and what do you expect from the festival?

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
4. You have been working a lot with foreign students. Is the dance language is international? How do the dance perception and understanding differ among your students from different countries?

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question
I heard a lot about your latest project in one of the museums of Washington. You prepared hard for it and as far as I know its opening was quite a success. Can you tell us what this project is about?

Maida’s Comments:
Please view the web page on the recent GLACIAL DRIFT music/dance/poetry project for the GREAT HALL in the Smithsonian’s National Building Museum: http://maidadance.com/works/glacial-drift/

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
In your performances you pay much attention to synthesis of arts. You use video installations and many other things. What do you think can the dance lose its primacy due to such variety of technologies?

Maida’s Comments:
My most recent project, MindFluctuations, was involved with neuroscience (Emotiv helmet interface made possible by neuroscience research). http://maidadance.com/works/mindfluctuations;

TRuslan Khisamutdinov Question:
Tell us about your literature preferences.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov
What movies inspire you? What are your favorite directors?

Maida’s Comments:
Generally speaking, I see as many independent films as possible and as many foreign films as possible. Independent films have become part of the mainstream media now.

Ruslan Khisamutdinov Question:
If someone offers you to create a dance project the basis of which is one painting by any artist, one book by any writer or one movie by any director, what works of art would you choose?

Thank you for your responses!
Sincerely, Ruslan Khisamutdinov

National Building Museum
Washington, DC
presents

GLACIAL DRIFT PREMIERE / 2016

Cool Evening with ICEBERGS
Dance, Music, and Poetry in the Surreal Underwater-World of ICEBERGS

Photos by Shaun Schroth
Crowd and musician photos by Aimee Fullman; Aerial photo by Virginia Quesada; Blue sea photo by Denaise L. Seals.

CHOREOGRAPHY
Maida Withers

ELECTRONIC MUSIC / SOUND INSTALLATION
Steve Hilmy and John Driscoll

POETRY/TEXT
David McAleavey and Alex Caldiero

DANCE
Maida Withers Dance Construction Company & Guest Artists

David McAleavey, Poet

SAMPLE TEXT – David McAleavey

Falling down / Falling down
#
Some things so hard, we
talk around them – so hard –
You can’t stare the sun down

SAMPLE TEXT, EXCERPT – Alex Caldiero

In a world where there’s no repetitions
and every action is performed only once, the first & last time, what would life be like in such a world In a world

MINDFLUCTUATIONS
DANCE, NEUROSCIENCE, VIRTUAL ART, LIVE MUSIC
A Java 3D application drives the participants within a metaphorical virtual reality journey
World Premiere / Lisner Auditorium
March 19, 2015
Washington, DC