005 – Evening-length political work created by Maida Withers for the historic Lenin Museum in Krasnoyarsk Russia with 13 Russian dancers along with Nikolai Shchetnev and three American dance artists. The work was first titled, “Memorium.” The work was part of the International Festival of Modern Dance “Isadora” in Krasnoyarsk, Eastern Siberia, Russia. The various exhibitions in a new Lenin Museum provided rich information for creating scripts for performance. Withers many projects in Russia made a stimulating and, perhaps controversial, dance work possible.
Press Release: LENIN “Memorium,” April 14, 2005 a site-specific work created for the Lenin Museum in the Cultural – Historical Center of Krasnoyarsk, and “Shocked and Odd – Live Art” with Nikolai Schetnev, Russian dancer, April 16 in the Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Krasnoyarsk. MWDCCo was in residence at the International Festival of Modern Dance “Isadora” April 10 to 17, 2005.
LENIN was created during a two-week summer dance workshop and scripting and scoring and sponsored and presented to the public by the Isadora International Dance Festival, Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia. Most of the Lenin Museums had been dismantled after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but since this was a new museum, it survived the general purge of such spaces. The event was televised locally in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
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Russian dancers responding in movement and commenting on historical text in booths in the exhibition.
2004 – Shocked and Odd – Live Art was an idea encouraging extreme movement and character concepts for improvisation that took place in DC with several of the worlds best improvising dancers. Withers states, “Without a question, performing with these astonishing dancers was one of the highlights of my improvising career. Each of these men brought something so profound to the group. A gift never to be forgotten. This makes choreographed dance feel oddly blocked. What great fun and serious fun with deliberate and exhausting chaos.!” (Maida Withers)
International guest artists, Nikolai Shchetnev (Russia), Vincent Cacalano (The Netherlands) and guests, Cyrus Khambatta (Seattle), Maida Withers (DC) and members of GW’s Washington Free Collaboration (DC), Wendell Cooper, Nicholette Routhier, Joe Venti, Amberlee Woods, improvised Shocked and Odd for two evening performances for the DC 10th International Improvisation Plus+ Festival, Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC (Dec. 3 and 4, 2004). Musicians: Peter Fraize, saxophone; Steven C Hilmy, electronics; Jim Levy, keyboard.
2004 – World War II Memorial Site Event created by Maida Withers with six dancers from The George Washington University Department of Theatre and Dance, Washington, DC.
Faces of The Fallen – A Moving Tribute
National World War II Memorial
& Lincoln Memorial
Washington, DC
2004 – Solosphere Project took place on Solovky Island, White Sea of Russia – Art Angar Contemporary Center for Art (Hanger for the blimp that transported food and materials to the Gulag: Maida Withers and Anthony Gongora, dancers, Linda Lewett, filmmaker, and Audrey Chen, cellist/vocalist, participated in a unique residency with dancers from Finland and Russia on Solovky Island in the North Sea of Russia. Solovky Island is the location of the first “Gulag” experiment by Communist Soviet Era Russia (forced labor camps). Author and Russian dissident, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, wrote extensively about terrible events,punishment and deaths, on this island under the Soviet Era experiment of forced labor camps. Solovky Island is rich in locations for site performances – some unavailable for performance and other used regardless of restrictions.
During the three-week period of our residency under the leadership of Luba Kusovnikova, founder of the Art Angar Contemporary Art Center on the Island, artists joined together to create daily site events and performances.
Events were created for two high metal towers, rooftops of barns, events in boats, performances viewed through doorways in an environment of white sheets hanging on line, dances on the small church monuments located throughout the island. We filmed dancing in the 14th Century Monestery, much against the rules.
Soviet leadership had decided to industrialize the island and build factories there, but after the collapse of Soviet Russia these unsightly structures were left standing and decaying. Luba had been organizing artist residencies on the island to use these materials to engage the community in building sculptures and installations in an effort to establish new and positive attitudes on the island that had such a violent history of pain and sorrow. Dance was the subject during the third summer. We were so honored to be invited and to participate.
Solosphere generally was housed in the Art Angar Contemporary Art Center – an astonishing architectural structure – one of only 18 created in Russia. This center is the only surviving structure of those designed and built. This structure housed the dirigible that brought food and sometimes people to the Island since getting to the Island is quite impossible. Since the historic building was to go into renovation the next summer, the festival was not allowed to use the space during our residency. However, we did get access to the key for one day and film the first half of Thresholds Crossed – Gulag/Art Angar in the space (see video).
*SEE LARGE PHOTOS on web page FLICKR 2004 – Political dance film, shot first half of Part II of Thresholds Crossed duet of Maida Withers and Anthony Gongora. Shot in unique Soviet Era architectural structure, Solovky Island Russia on the White Sea. The unique building was the hangar for a dirigible (airship) that delivered supplies to the GULAG.
Solovki Island and the GULAG are known to us through the writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. This building temporarily housed the Art Angar Center for Contemporary Arts that sponsored our dance residency on the island. The choreograph, Part II of Threshold Crossed evening-length work, is based on photographs of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where political prisoners/detainees have been terrorized through various tactics (water boarding, exposure / nakedness). Russia had their GULAG and America has our Guantenamo Bay.
Film selected for showing: Festival De Video Danse De Bourgogne, Burgundy France (April, 2011). Istanbul 2010 International Dance Festival, Istanbul, Turkey; 2010 FinnUS American/Finnish Films, Embassy of Finland, Washington, DC; Artisphere DANCE:FILMS, October 21, 2011; DanzLenz at the Habitat Center, New Delhi, India, February 2012, others.
2004 – For TOUCH 3 International Modern Dance Festival in Arkhangelsk, Russia, Maida directed an original site-specific work, In Grass Tall, that took place at the Merci Café (elevated space) and related streets in downtown Arkhangelsk, Russia. Performers included Maida Withers, Anthony Gongora, dancers; Linda Lewett, filmmaker, Audrey Chen, vocalist/cellist, a duet company from Finland, Kannon Dance Company from St. Petersburg, and TOUCH 3 workshop students (3). A significant segment of “In Tall Grass,” with accompanying interviews, was featured on Arkhangelsk television and reported in two daily newspapers. July 11 – 16, 2004.
Nikolais Schetnev is the founder of the TOUCH Festival. Maida Withers and Nikolais Schetenev
TOUCH 2004 Festival 12 – 16 July, Arkhangelsk, Russia
https://nikolayshchetnev.wixsite.com/nik-s/
International Festival of Contemporary Dance Performances:
Performances:
“Thresholds Crossed” – Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, Washington, DC
Accents – Break dance group TOP9 (St. Petersburg, Russia)
Kannon Dance Company (St. Petersburg, Russia)
“Identification of Movement” Other Dance Theatre (Arkhangelsk, Russia)
“Machine a sons” Drift Company (Zurich, Switzerland)
Improv performances – Susanna Nurminen (Rovaniemi/Finland)
Improv performances – Sini Haapalinna (Joensuu/Finland)
Improv performances – Pia Lindy (Joensuu/Finland)
Workshops
Yoga – Susanna Nurminen (Rovaniemi, Finland)
Jazz – Anna Oserskaya / Kannon Dance Company (St. Petersburg)
Funky – Burakov Dmitry/Kannon Dance Company (St. Petersburg)
Modern – Krukova Julya/Kannon Dance Company (St. Petersburg)
TOUCH: Non profit organization was created on 28.06.2002 with the purpose of development of contemporary dance and performance art (modern, postmodern, new and creative dance, improvisation, contact improvisation, dance theatre, physical theatre, etc.) in Arkhangelsk. GOALS: Information help choreographers, teachers of dance , art directors of dance schools and groups, dancers in Arkhangelsk, Workshops, festivals, dance events and actions, international projects and tours
2004 – Collaboration of Maida Withers and Wendell Cooper, NYC, with American Composers Forum musicians in a performance at Flashpoint, downtown Washington, DC exhibition and performance space. Our goal was to create an improvised dance where the stage was treated as a drum and the walls were sounding boards based on the architecture of the performance space.
2003 – Alex Caldiero performance poet, scholar, author (Salt Lake City, Utah) performs live his poem, Sphota Probe, with dancers Maida Withers and Katia Chupashko. Katia performs Thresholds Crossed SOLO (Katia Chupashko) created Maida Withers using a vertical standing casket with light inside and a red interior. For the duet, Maida Withers improvises around Katia performing her choreographed solo and also engages with a second reclining casket on stage. This work was performed as part of the DC 9th Annual International Improvisation Plus+ Festival at the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre. Alex Caldiero, sonosphere/poet, from Salt Lake City, has written a truly amazing evening-length poem “Sphota Probe” that he performs on stage with the dancers.
(2003) SOLO: Katia Chupashko, dancer for the first work created by Maida Withers based on the ideas that were evolving for the eventual evening-length performance Thresholds Crossed (2006). Katia emerged from a red standing casket into a diagonal light. Each time she emerged she had removed more and more of the white suite and satin blue-green blouse. The red scarf that played such an important role in the evening-length work, Thresholds Crossed 2006. Part II, was first introduced in this solo. Much of this solo appears in Part II Gulag/Art Angar duet by Maida Withers and Anthony Gongora, as part of the final evening-length version of Thresholds Crossed. Due to the lights going on and off when Katia goes into the casket, the video taping is hampered.
(2003) DUET: Katia and Maida performed an improvised version of this solo as a duet for the DC 9th International Improvisation Plus Festival in Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre in the Fall of 2003. Katia continues to perform her SOLO with her vertical casket and Maida interacts with Katia and the reclining casket.
12 – 14 July, Arkhangelsk, Russia
International Festival of Contemporary Dance
https://nikolayshchetnev.wixsite.com/nik-s/
Dance Performances:
«Aurora Borealis» – Dance Construction Company (Washington DC/ USA)
Kannon Dance Company (S. Petersburg/ Russia)
Children dance theater «Domino» (Korjazma, Arkhangelsk region/ Russia)
Group «La Jounes» (Arkhangelsk/ Russia)
Workshops:
Contemporary – Iwona Olszowska (Poland) (MWDCCO)
Improvisation – Maida Withers (Washington DC/ USA) (MWDCCO)
Eric Hawkins Dance Technique – Joseph Mills (USA) (MWDCCO)
Partnering – Adrienne Clancy (USA) (MWDCCO)
Modern – Natalya Kasparova/ Kannon Dance Company (St. Petersburg/ Russia)
Jazz – Anna Oserskaya/ Kannon Dance Company (St. Petersburg/ Russia)
Funky – Burakov Dmitry/ Kannon Dance Company (St. Petersburg/ Russia)
Art management – Vadim Kasparov/ Kannon Dance Company (St. Petersburg/ Russia)
Non profit organization was created on 28.06.2002 by Nikolay Shchetnev, Arkhangelsk, Russia, with the purpose of development of contemporary dance and performance art (modern, postmodern, new and creative dance, improvisation, contact improvisation, dance theatre, physical theatre, etc.) in Arkhangelsk. GOALS: Information help choreographers, teachers of dance , art directors of dance schools and groups, dancers in Arkhangelsk, Workshops, festivals, dance events and actions, international projects and tours.
Maida Withers Dance Construction Company participated in TOUCH 3 and TOUCH 4 (2003 AND 2004)
Dance of the Auroras – Fire in the Sky Maida Withers Dance Construction Company
Photos by Adam Peiperl
2003 Documentary Film – Interviews about post-modern dance in Russia in 2003. Documentary shot in St. Petersburg, Russia. Maida Withers was a guest artist for Summer Dance Workshop, OPEN LOOK. Linda Lewett, filmmaker, shot the video and Maida Withers asked questions of students in the workshop from all over Russia; administrators in dance, choreographers and others associates of the field. There was a huge burst of interest in post-modern dance in Russia following the collapse of Soviet Era 1991. Maida was a guest artist at OPEN LOOK several summers and also Touch 2 and Touch 3 with Nikolair Schetnev in Arkhelanglsk. Under the Radar: Modern Dance in Russia. Linda and Maida interview dancers from all over Russia attending Kannon Dance festival. Touring St. Petersburg, Solovki and Arkhangelsk and footage from Solovky Island + interviews (Daria Buzovkina, Vadim & Natalie Kasparov, Lyubov Kuzovnikova, Nikolai Schetnev, Maida Withers, and many others. NYC Swan lake interview with Sasha Pepelaev; produced by Maida Withers Dance Construction Company (perform part III of Dance of Auroras in St.Petersburg).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGrA-b8u84E
Linda Lewett, filmmaker, web page: Selects from documentary 26:30 taped with Maida Withers Dance Construction Company (DCC) on tours in Russia in 2004 and 2005. Tour was funded by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, GWU and DCC. Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg curated by Vadim Kasparov and Kannon Dance; Arkhangelsk Festival with Nikolai Schetnev; Solovki Festival curated by Lyubov Kuzovnikova; Daria Buzovkina performing at Danspace at St. Mark’s; and Sasha Pepelaev, choreographer/director of The Swan Lake with Von Krahl Theatre of Tallinn at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City.
2003 – Maida Withers is interviewed by Wen Hui, Dancer and founder of Living Dance Studio, Beijing, with translation by Feng Dehua, writer, Beijing, China, assisted by Estelle Zheng, performer, Paris, France.
Maida discusses making dances for site performances, political dances, dancing with nature, making narratives, living and working in DC, dance and intellectual pursuits, other. The interview took place in Washington, DC on May 12, 2003. Wen Hui was particularly interested in Maida’s groundbreaking work on the Earth.
Wen Hui is associated in Beijing with Wu Wenguang Caochangdi Work Station and the Living Dance Studio in Beijing China. These post-modern artists tour extensively internationally and are well known for their current “Memory” Project in China.
Dances discussed by Maida include:
White Mansions (Site Work)
Dance of the Auroras – Fire in the Sky
Nose to Cement and Other Tales Told on the Way Down
State of the Art
Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz
Others
2003 – One-woman show created and performed by Maida Withers, february 14/15, 2003 in Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC. For this work, Withers life and artistic work parallel current scientific ideas and theories of the origin and fate/demise of the universe. A visual/audio installation features excerpts of video documentaries of dance works by Withers and a laptop stream of consciousness text. Cam Miller created and performed music for the trombone combined with some electronic composition.
Who hasn’t dreamed of traveling into outer space and experiencing the wonders of our universe? In Maida on Maida in the Universe, Maida travels with us through her “universe” – her artistic history that includes more than 30 years of cutting-edge dance and performance art. She juxtaposes her life’s work and the latest theories of the origin and demise of the universe, using images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope mixed with excerpts of choreography. The intersections between art, science and technology and our place in the universe are explored in this interactive, one-woman multimedia performance. Withers uses an installation of screens to display a collection of images and video of her career and stream-of-consciousness thoughts typed during the performance, while also engaging in an ongoing dialogue with the audience. Maida on Maida in the Universe provides those unfamiliar with Withers with an introduction to her extensive body of work. Those already familiar with Withers’ work are treated to many images from past performances that provides a unique retrospective. For all involved, Maida on Maida in the Universe is an interactive performance that may carry us beyond the boundaries of our planet and into our future in the universe.
005 – Evening-length political work created by Maida Withers for the historic Lenin Museum in Krasnoyarsk Russia with 13 Russian dancers along with Nikolai Shchetnev and three American dance artists. The work was first titled, “Memorium.” The work was part of the International Festival of Modern Dance “Isadora” in Krasnoyarsk, Eastern Siberia, Russia. The various exhibitions in a new Lenin Museum provided rich information for creating scripts for performance. Withers many projects in Russia made a stimulating and, perhaps controversial, dance work possible.
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