Electronic Bodies

Experimental, Improvisation, Live Music, Original Music, Stage Works, Technology and Dance, Turn of the Century (2000-2020)

2013 – Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, Anthony Gongora, Giselle Ruzany, Maida Withers and guest, Felipe Oyarzun (Chile) were joined by experimental composers/musicians, John Driscoll, New York, and Steve Hilmy, Washington, DC, to present Electronic Bodies, an evening of dance and music improvisation. This FREE improvised performance was followed by a discussion about the creative and live interface of electronic music and dance. John Driscoll was the music director for the Dance Construction Company from 1974 to 1981. Steve Hilmy has been the music director for the Company from 2006 to today. John has worked with John Cage, David Tudor, and Merce Cunningham and is the co-founder of Composers Inside Electronics. Steve is a classically trained composer who brings that sensibility to experimental electronic music for dance and dance films.

Improvisation as performance has been a staple of MWDCCo since the founding in 1975. The goal is always unique spontaneous choreography as solo and group performance in co-collaboration of music and other artists.

Chroma

Improvisation, Stage Works, Turn of the Century (2000-2020), Voice and Text

2013 – Late Night Expressions at Joe’s Emporium for various art forms (dance, comedy, performance art).

MWDCCo dance and music Improvisation performance with a script centered on lime green and orange objects (chair, marley strip, electrical cord, others) that was danced by Anthony Gongora, Tzveta Kassabova, and Nate Bond. The performance was at midnight at Joe’s Emporium in Mt. Rainier, Maryland in a performance with other DC dance artists. The show was curated by Cheles Rhynes, DC producer.

Matrimony – To Sink or Swim!

Site Work, Work

2013 – Two couples, dressed in full wedding attire, frolic dangerously on the edge of the swimming pool, eventually submerging and reemerging in the passionate wrestle for survival- a metaphor for marriage – to sink or swim! Dancers perform to the Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn.

Saturday, August 3, 2013, 5pm at the Capitol Skyline Hotel Pool 10 I (eye) St. SW Washington, DC FREE

Presented by: The Washington Project for the Arts for their Fall Gala, SynchroSwim 2013, performance art competition held in the swimming pool at the Skyline Hotel, SW Washington, DC. The project won several awards.

Interview, Arlington Independent Media: Tell Arlington’s Story

Interviews

2013 – Maida briefly tells her “story for Arlington Independent Media (AIM).” Maida lives in Arlington with her husband Lawrence Arlen Withers, where they have raised a family of four children (Kristin, Luke, Eric, and Marc).

Maida talks about creating and performing dance works and films in Arlington: Rolling Thunder and Sky Cloud – Collaboration with Hilda Thorpe; DANCE:FILMS presented at Artisphere.

Maida has received funding support from Arlington Cultural Affairs Office and the Virginia Commission on Art in Richmond, Virginia.

Creating Dance THEN and NOW – Axis Gallery (Manchester, UK)

Museums/Galleries

2013 – Manchester, United Kingdom
Maida was guest artist for the Process/Product Symposia, AXIS Gallery, An International Festival and Conference on Improvised Dance, Metropolitan Manchester University, Cheshire Campus.

Participation included:
▪   Exhibition/Installation of MWDCCo dances and films “Creating Dance THEN and NOW” in the AXIS Gallery
▪   Video showing and lecture (Feb 25- March 1)
▪   Telepresence, “Process/Product” global exchange with online interaction through dance improvisation with Maida Withers and Wendell Cooper – Manchester Metropolitan University, Cheshire Campus, and Hunter College, NYC, NY) (Feb 29)

Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk (Stage Performance)

Experimental, Gender and Feminism, Group Choreography, Installation / Visual, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Live Music, Museums/Galleries, Original Music, Post Modernism, Site Work, Stage Works, Technology and Dance, Turn of the Century (2000-2020), Voice and Text

2012 – A provocative dance theater work from associated memories, dreams, and nightmares, an off-beat yet delightful spectacle about the fiction and reality of LUV for the digital age. This evening-length multimedia dance theater work about LUV for the digital age was conceived and directed by Maida Withers. This real yet surreal evening-length performance by four extraordinary dance artists exposes the fragile and volatile nature of relationships through intricate and striking partnering performed with dramatic and forceful innuendo. The lush white-on-white stage setting provides a palette for the immersive electronic installation of vogue portraits of the dancers and paintings by Anthony Gongora featuring visual poetry and pillow talk by Alex Caldiero, poet, and penetrating and compelling electronic music by Steve Hilmy. Dancers / Quartet: Kelly Bond, Nate Bond, Anthony Gongora, Giselle Ruzany; Guest Dancers: Dylan Mont, Billy Andrews, Ian Ceccarelli, Kristi Cole, Sam Wong; Poet, Alissandru (Alex) Caldiero; Visual Design, Anthony Gongora (See below)

Physical and symbolic meanings are derived from white pristine bed pillows that are incorporated into all scenes and dance episodes. These familiar objects of passion and pleasure provide dancers opportunity to configure/reconfigure the space constructing a sanctuary for intimacy and violence, humor, and even remorse. Pillows are embraced, shared, relayed, and taped to the body like appendages becoming an ever present friend and companion, a shield for protection, a burden, an instrument for violence, a suffocating handicap, a comfort needed for a soft landing.

Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk is at once bold and delicate, daring, loving and audacious. Pillows thrown, relationships caught! What dreams of love do nightmares bring? “At the end of the day we return to the pillow, the place where thoughts are shared and decisions are made. There’s pillow talk, then life happens!”

Object Label (148 words) Don’t know what this means? MRW
Collaborators LIst?

Why isn’t the list of collaborators Below listed here in style?

Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk (2012)
Choreographer and Artistic Director, Maida Withers
Composer and Musician, Steve Hilmy
Dancers, Kelly Bond, Nathaniel (Nate) Bond, Anthony Gongora, Dyllan Mont, Giselle Ruzany
Billy Andrews, Ian Ceccarelli, Kristi Cole, Sam Wong
Film and Visual Installation Design, Anthony Gongora
Poet and Sonosphere, Alex Caldiero (Alissandru (Alex) Caldiero)
Original Video of Alex Caldiero, Maida Withers
Photographs, Shaun Schroth
Digital Paintings, Michelle Kliman
Costume Design, Sigrid Johannesdottir
Light Design, Michael Sperber
Talking Pillow, Ayodamola (Ayo) Okunseinde
Stage Manager, Corinne Haynes
Public Relations, Angela Olson, Billy Andrews, Intern, Shannon O’Brien

Sources: not needed if use web page (MRW doesn’t know where this comes from?)
http://maidadance.com/works/collision-course-a-k-a-pillow-talk/
https://vimeo.com/58111383 (1:02:34)
http://maidadance.com/works/collision-course-installation/
http://vimeo.com/69312510 (44:21 installation film)
https://maidadance.com/works/collision-course-a-k-a-pillow-talk-film/
https://vimeo.com/32204528 (07:23 film)

I added these two additional related projects but Not thru the Web system

3. Collision Course – Gala Opening Smith center for Healing and the Arts
https://maidadance.com/works/collision-course-gala-opening/

4. Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk – Artisphere
https://maidadance.com/works/collision-course-a-k-a-pillow-talk-artisphere-episode-1-2-3episode-1-2-3/

END DISPLAY #4

Premiere, Dorothy Betts Theatre, Washington, DC July 12, 2012; Viseos Urbanas – Festival Internacional de Danca, Sao Paulo, BR, March 24, 2013; Teatro Cacilda Becker, Rio de Janeiro, BR, March 28, 2013; Seattle International Dance Festival, June 21, 2013; Conduit Performance Space, Portland, OR, June 22, 2013

Photos by Shaun Schroth

Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk (Installation FILM)

Experimental, Films, Gender and Feminism, Installation / Visual, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Live Music, Original Music, Stage Works, Technology and Dance, Turn of the Century (2000-2020)

2012 – The video is compiled from projected images, a visual installation created for and projected during the evening-length multimedia performance, Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk, choreographed by Maida Withers in collaboration with the Dance Construction Company (Nate Bond, Anthony Gongora, Giselle Ruzany,

The installation narrative and drawings were designed and edited by Anthony Gongora, dance and visual artist. Alissandru (Alex) Caldiero, sonosphere, performer, poet and scholar, is the centerpiece of the visual installation. The text originated from Caldiero. The photographs included in the visual installation were taken by Shaun Schroth. The narrative video of Alex Caldiero, shot by Maida Withers, features Caldiero as he improvises talking about love over a period of two hours.

This installation (visual narrataive) by Anthony Gongora) is not continuous during the performance, but for this this video version all segments have been combined for continuous playing rather than separated by black for timing for other visuals in the work on stage matching the choreography.

Alex improvised the text during a video taping session filmed by Maida Withers at Utah Valley University where Alex is a Philosophy Professor. Alex improvised stories about love, directing his stories to the camera and to Verabel Call Cluff, friend, filmmaker, and artist, who was dying of cancer at the time. The stories reflect the situation.

This Space Occupied (by Maida)

Interviews, Museums/Galleries, Voice and Text

2013 – This Space Occupied (by Maida) is a 4-hour endurance event performed by Maida Withers, dancer/performance artist, with Steve Hilmy, electronic composer-musician. Maida performed in the elevated glass entrance way to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, historic Flagg Building, in Washington, DC.

The performance, featuring notions and realities of the Occupy Movement, was commissioned by the Washington Project for the Arts and the Corcoran Gallery of Art as part of Take It to the Bridge Series. Audience members could ask Maida questions via a public microphone available in the lobby. Maida would/could choose to carry on a dialogue then on global issues related to “occupy.”

This work was also performed in two international festivals:
<Visoes Urbanas Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Performance in the Museum of Image and Sound (MIS), March 2013. (See photos below).
<Barents SPEKTAKEL, Kirkines, Norway (supported by U.S. Embassy, Oslo, Norway, February 2013. Luba Kusovnikova produced the festival that was sponsored by the King of Norway. This performance was in a storefront window with the audience outside in the dark and freezing winter setting. STeve Hilmy performed electronic music.

Promotional Photos above by Shaun Schroth
Take It To The Bridge photos below at Corcoran Flagg Entrance:

Photos below from the performances in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Museum of Media and Sound. Visoes Urbanas International Street Festival. (2013)

Photos from Museum of Image and Sound, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2013)

Photos at Museum of Image and Sound (MIS), Sao Paulo, Brazil. (2013)
Regrettably there are no photos of the Barent’s Spektakel.

Vessel (PILLOWS)

Museums/Galleries

2012 – Commission to perform for the opening Gala of the new Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, 1632 U Street NW, Washington, DC, September 9, 2012. Live electronic music was created and performed by Steve Hilmy with dancers Nate Bond, Anthony Gongora, Tzveta Kassabova, and Giselle Ruzany – Maida Withers Dance Construction Company. Vessel was an improvisation performance using pillows for healing and love. A new take-off on pillows used in Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk about the violence of LUV (2012)

Interview – Pioneer of Modern Dance: Maida Withers

Interviews

Chance C. Jackson interviews “modern dance pioneer” Maida Withers on her career. Interview by upcoming media specialist, Chance Cessna Jackson from Chicago, Illinois.

InVoluntary Encounters

Installation / Visual, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Live Music, Stage Works, Turn of the Century (2000-2020)

2012 – Maida Withers Dance Construction Company and guest artist choreographers and dancers from NYC, Boston and Japan create an interactive event of dance, live video feed, film, and electronic music that features improvisations by choreographers who perform and a composer who performs.

PROGRAM
Duets Plus+ – Based on duet choreography by Maida Withers for Anthony Gongora/Giselle Ruzany; Tzveta Kassabova/Nate Bond (DCCo) joined by Junichi Fukuda and Sarah Slifer; Electronic music by Steve Hilmy.

Dust to Dust – Blending hindsight / foresight / structure / improvisation (music, voice, dance). Created and performed by Monstah Black and Wendell Cooper, NYC.

Deconstruction of Thresholds Crossed Part 2 – Original choreography by Maida Withers with dancer Anthony Gongora; joined in improvisations by DCCo dancers Nate Bond, Tzveta Kassabova, Giselle Ruzany and guest artists,Monstah Black, Wendell Cooper, & Sarah Slifer. Film by Linda Lewett. Music by Audrey Chen, vocals and cello, and Steve Hilmy, electronic music.

TZVETA – Choreography by Maida Withers and Tzveta Kassabova, dancer, performing with films Tzveta I by Anthony Gongora and Tzveta II by Ayo Okunseinde; Music for film by Steve Hilmy.

Chroma – Improvisation with chroma colored green and orange objects with DCCo and Guest Artists; Music by Steve Hilmy.

Video documentation by Matthew Swift

Families Are Forever Part III: Veiled Threat

Stage Works, Turn of the Century (2000-2020), Voice and Text, Work

2012 – Veiled Threat is the name given to Part III of Families are Forever. Veiled threat reveals the delicacy of the relationships in families. The familiarity of family members gives the members power based on the intimate knowledge they have about each other. A dancer makes a threatening gesture when touching another dancer and then removes that violence and turns it into love or compassion. No movement is repeated in Part III, Veiled Threat. The genealogy of Woodruff Rust and that of Isabelle Martina Luke, Maida Withers parents, is played as a sound score. The male genealogy is spoken in strong clear tones while the female genealogy is whispered. Each name is given a birth date and location, one significant incident in his/her life, and the circumstances of death.

The original cast is presented here in rehearsal as well as a reconstruction by GW dancers in 2012 that was performed in Washington, DC as well. The lighting made it difficult to document the work for showing.

1982 – Original quartet rehearsal: https://vimeo.com/35583218

Tzveta I: Dance Portraits on Screen (Film 7:42)

Films, Work

Tzveta Kassabova; Adam Peiperl, Photographer

2011 – TZVETA I: Dance Portraits on Screen Anthony Gongora creates a portrait of Tzveta Kassabova employing intense imagery to reveal the flow of a beautiful life, layered and complex and driven by movement through imagined spaces, saturated with color, motion and symbolism. The film cascades with shifting emotions and ephemeral views of a woman moving through her time on this Earth. TZVETA I is part of the Dance Portraits on Screen Series that includes TZVETA I and TZVETA II, MAIDA I and MAIDA II, and Collision Course a.k.a. Pillow Talk, Shot on location with green screen at Bella Faccia, Inc. Washington, DC

Tzveta I and Tzveta II were show at Artisphere, Arlington, VA as part of DANCE:FILMS, October 21, 2011 and DanzLenz Habitat Center showing in New Delhi, India, February 2012, others.

Footage for Dance Portraits on Screen was shot in the Bella Faccia Television Studio. Anthony Gongora was one of the filmmakers on camera and also edited.

Tzveta Kassabova; Adam Peiperl, Photographer; Anthony Gongora, Video

Tzveta Kassabova; Adam Peiperl, Photographer
Tzveta_chains4.
Tzveta Kassabova; Anthony Gongora, Photograper/Media

Tzveta Kassabova photo combined with Guardian light sculptures of Adam Peiperl.

Tzveta II: Dance Portraits on Screen (Film 4:37)

Films

(2011) Film Short (4:37) TZVETA II: Dance Portrait on Screen. Ayo Okunseinde combines graphic design and 3D effects in the exploration of the subtlety and action of Tzveta Kassabova’s movement in a dynamic pop art short. For TZVETA II the filmmaker ventures to the edge of the subconscious to reveal the essence that transcends in kinetic experience in these portrayals of Tzveta Kassabova for Dance Portraits on Screen.

Steve Hilmy balances electronic compositional structures against improvisational synthetic sound design for a provocative musical amalgam. Director – Maida Withers Editor – Ayodamola Okunseinde Choreography – Maida Withers and Tzveta Kassabova Dancer – Tzveta Kassabova Composer/Musician: Steve Hilmy TZVETA II is part of the Dance Portraits on Screen Series along with TZVETA I, MAIDA I, MAIDA II, and Collision Course a.k.a. Pillow Talk. Shot on location at Bella Faccia, Inc. Washington, DC.

Tzveta I and Tzveta II were shown at Artisphere, Arlington, VA as part of DANCE:FILMS, October 21, 2011 and DanzLenz Habitat Center showing in New Delhi, India, February 2012, others.

Naked Truth and improvised movements were shot at the Bella Faccia Studio in Washington, DC (Maryland suburb).

Anthony Gongora was on camera with other filmmakers at Bella Faccia Studio.

Dance Portraits on Screen (Dance Films)

Films

2011 – Concept for creating dance film shorts begun by MWDCCo in 2010 where the film making team collaborates with a selected artist (dancer/performance artist/others) to create a personal portrait (movement, language, life view, other). The initial goal was to have more than one filmmaker create a portrait combining dance and media using the same video sources of dance that would result in dance video shorts, companion pieces, to be exhibited in a gallery or museum or online as companion portraits.

A subsidiary organization of MWDCCo – Where Where IS Productions! was established for the purpose of creating films and other new media project and continues.

The current dance films can be viewed in MWDCCo archives under the following titles:

Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk (Film Short 7:24)

http://maidadance.com/works/tzveta-i-film/
http://maidadance.com/works/tzveta-ii-film/
http://maidadance.com/works/maida-i-film-short/
http://maidadance.com/works/maida-ii-film-short/

Maida Withers (visit Maida I)

Tzveta Kassabova (visit Tzveta I)

The original filming took place at Bella Faccia, an excellent studio with a green screen: www.bellafaccia.net , Bella Faccia Inc. is Washington, DC’s premier sound stage and production design service company located in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Maida Withers Dance Construction Company

Life is best lived through dance

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