Damned River

Earth and Environment, Expansion (80s and 90s), Installation / Visual, Stage Works, Work

1993 – “Wind is power, the grass, people. When winds blow the grass bends.” Damned River is dedicated to Mariko, dance colleague in Kyoto, Japan

A multimedia stage work for fourteen dancers that explores the dynamics of fascism in its subtle and new forms. “Damned Rivers” is performed to drum and instrumental music of Kodo Drummers of Sado Island, Japan, and includes video of Noh masks and projection of live performance on stage. The boots first appeared in the performance, Stone Ring, in 1995.

For eight weeks in the summer of 1993, Maida was in Japan dancing and primarily attending an international conference on the environment. During her stay, Maida learned that every major river in Japan had been dammed with the exception of one. There was a plan to dam that river. Environmentalists took a stand against damming that river as a symbol of destruction of the environment by the government and invested corporations. On her return to Washington, DC, Maida created Damned Rivers with undergraduate and graduate student dancers at The George Washington University as a tribute to all people globally committed to the environment as an essential consideration in all corporate, government, and personal decisions.

Earth Dancer, UN Earth Summit, Interview, GW Magazine

Interviews, Site Work

Interview – Earth Dancer – GW Magazine, page 22, Summer 1993 “This interview is dedicated to all those with whom my life has intersected.” Maida Withers

Maida Withers is interviewed on her views of dance, dancing, making dances, collaborating, experimenting, having a meaningful life, and making meaningful work. The interview occurred near the time Maida was leaving with members of the Dance Construction Company for Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to participate with 100 international artists for ecology by demonstrating, performing, creating events during the United Nation’s Earth Summit (Eco ’92) (June 3 – 14, 1992). Artists for Ecology extended our program to Brasilia, Brazil to have more political impact (May 20 to June 14, 1992).

Maida discusses her groundbreaking works involving issues of environment and the Earth that began in the early 1980s. Maida discusses the Utah Project that led to Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz, Rolling Thunder (work recreated in Brazil with MWDCCo and Brazilian dancers), Sky Cloud, Prologue, others.

Maida’s family had been deeply engaged with the Earth during her childhood in Kanab, Utah. Her family built the Kaibab Lodge eighteen miles from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in the 1920s…long before their were roads into the North Rim and tourism was not yet a commonly used word. Kaibab Lodge provided the first permanent structures for tourists to eat/sleep and be entertained on the way to the world’s wonder, the Grand Canyon.

MWDCCo participation in the UN Earth Summit was through association with Marilyn Wood, Founding Director of Celebration Art. Marilyn had an amazing vision for performance for all occasions both formal and informal.

In Winds of Sand

Earth and Environment, Expansion (80s and 90s), Experimental, Installation / Visual, Original Music, Solo Choreography, Stage Works, Tours, Work

1993 – “The act of being…creating for the Earth.” Evening-length epoch performance and installation created and danced by Maida Withers. The installation features visuals by Verabel Call Cluff, SandS CycleS.

Dancer: Maida Withers
Music: Alex Caldiero (drum and vocal)
Film: Verabel Call Cluff
An early pre-creation work shown in Korea featured saxophone artist, Kang Tae Hwan performance in Korea (Maida, elaborate)

SandS CycleS – an art film of Withers improvising at Coral Dunes, Utah and White Sands, New Mexico that is projected on an elaborate stage set; slides of sand dune formations projected on the floor with 8 slide projectors, technology available at the time. The stage dance work parallels the structure of SandS CycleS which is based on the Hero’s Journey* monomyth concept by Joseph Campbell, psychologist and mythological researcher, writer, and scholar. Hero’s Journey: innocent, martyr, orphan, caretaker, warrior, destroyer, magician, and the ruler.

In Winds of Sand was performed in Washington, DC and internationally in Korea, Venezuela and The Netherlands.

Withers “Statement to the Earth” – Program Notes
“Maida Withers began exploring land sites as a place for healing and to develop artistic work. The Coral Dunes of Utah and the White Sands of New Mexico are the Earth site sources for In Winds of Sand. For Withers, the Coral Sand Dunes are a deep connection to her place of birth in Kanab, Utah. In 1987, Withers began the first of her land site process creations with “Moving Earth/Dunes.” In 1990, Withers and Verabel Call Cluff, studying the life and rituals of Pueblo Native American peoples in New Mexico, initiated the White Sands project, shooting many of the photographs included in the production In Winds of Sand. Withers and Cluff returned to the White Sands and the Coral Dunes in 1991 to shoot the dance video. The performance installation of In Winds of Sand is a large painting, a subtle and shifting space much like the sands, that captures Withers’ experience of working and living with nature.”

*The Hero with a Thousand Faces, book by Joseph Campbell. “In his lifelong research, Campbell discovered many common patterns running through hero myths and stories from around the world. Years of research lead Campbell to discover several basic stages that almost every hero-quest goes through (no matter what culture the myth is a part of). He calls this common structure “the monomyth.”

View DUNE In Winds of Sand: https://vimeo.com/101621322 (00:00:00 to 0:05:58); Also view Moving Earth/ DUNE in Earth Spirit Rising: https://vimeo.com/9360613 9 (0:09:13 to 0:16:53

In Winds of Sand performance: January 21/22, 1994 in GWU Marvin Center Theatre, in concert with Je Young Kim performing Monalisa (Music by Meredith Monk) Virtuous Woman, music by Chang Seok Joon, and Fascination (Improvised duet by Jey and Maida).

In Winds of Sand was also performed in Theatre Dunois, Paris, France July 8 and 9, 1997. along with Stirrings performed by Sarah Slifer and Giselle Ruzany.
Maida, Coral Dunes, Utah; Photo by Collaborator/Filmmaker, Belle Cluff

Maida performing in Korea

Dance Magazine Editor_Shaman Family Healing

Jooksan Teachers_Korea

Re- Voltaire – The AX (Mary Christmas)

Museums/Galleries, Work

1992 – Maida Withers performs at Cabaret Re-Voltaire at The Washington Project for the Art’s. “The Ax was done when I was deeply involved in the environmental/ecology issues. The plastic suit represents the risk put on our survival as we destroy our trees that clean our air that gives us life-sustaining oxygen. The choice is between my love of the shiny powerful and potentially destructive ax and my love of nature and my own life.”

Music : Karen Akers performs “Sometimes When We Touch” by Dan Hill & Barry Mann.

Stone Garden UN Earth Summit

Museums/Galleries, Site Work, Work

June 5, 1992 – Evening-length site work created by Maida Withers in collaboration with dancers (Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Stacy Palatt, Janine Ploetz, USA, and Celia Portilho, Brazil) musicians (Digerdoo by Craig Gibson and Harold Gent), rock carving sculptor (Ken Haritsuka) for the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro in Placo Aberto – Open Stage in the rock garden as part of the celebration of United Nation’s Earth Summit (Eco ’92. Open Stage was conceived by Regina Miranda, dance and performance curator at MAM. Eco ’92 occurred June 1 to 14, 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. MWDCCo was at the Summit with 100 International Artists for Ecology and the Environment.

World Premiere: Museo de Arte Moderno – Rock Garden, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at dusk
URL: http://maidadance.com/works/stone-garden-2/ Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/102323665

Stone Garden was performed at dusk. The work took the dancers about one hour to crawl slowly on the rocks from one end of the garden to the other, finally finishing in a standing position. Lights were placed down in between the rocks and some rocks were covered with water. Dancers were dressed in flesh colored leotards to appear nude. The goal, at dusk, was to create interest by the illusion of watching a rock or a body moving extremely slowly across the rock. Is it human or Earth?

Maida Withers Dance Construction Company was at the United Nation’s Earth Summit (Eco’92) as artist members of the International Conference of Celebration – Celebration of the Earth Project. MWDCCo and other artists were in Brasilia making work as part of the Omame Projeto, May 3 to 19, 1992. Maida performed In Winds of Sand and Prologue at the National Theatre in Brasilia, May 12, 1992.

Rolling Thunder – “Transformation”

Conference, Earth and Environment, Expansion (80s and 90s), Installation / Visual, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Metaphysical/Spirit, Project, Stage Works, Work

Rolling Thunder, USA: https://vimeo.com/101003244 (14:18 minutes)
Rolling Thunder, Brazil: https://vimeo.com/10232271 (7:35 minutes)

1992 – “Rolling Thunder intricately weaves rich and layered movement materials in a ritualistic contemporary dance narrative, a new world myth. The gift, the knowledge of the earth, is brought forth. Those who hear the message change – transforming themselves with the Earth.” Maida Withers, Program, 1992.

Rolling Thunder “Transformation” is the fourth part of the larger work that includes “Messenger Eagle,” “Spirit Figures,” “Still Rush,” and “Transformation.” The total performance can be viewed on Dance for the Earth. Rolling Thunder “Transformation” as presented at Thomas Jefferson Community Theater in Arlington, Virginia, February 7 & 8, 1992.

The metal tubes originated in a birthday celebration for Hilda Thorpe, sculptor and artist in her studio in Old Town Alexandria. Original tubes came from her storage closet in the attic of her studio. Hilda had used similar tubes and objects related to inner workings / architecture as part of her art work.

Rolling Thunder was created to be part of performances by MWDCCo for the United Nation’s Earth Summit (Eco ’92) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rolling Thunder was staged in Brazil for Eco ’92 with four American dancers (original cast) and five Brazilian dancers who performed on stage in a park designated for events related to Eco ’92 and sponsored by the City of Rio de Janeiro. In Brazil we purchase and had cut to specifications, the metal tubes.
Dancers carried the tubes, wore them as a head dress, played as a drum and rolled them as part of the choreography.

MWDCCo cooperated with 100 international Artists for Ecology and 60 Brazilian artists for ecology in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro over a five-week period teaching workshops, creating site events, and performing.

Rolling Thunder (USA and Brazil cast) Beach Stage Performance in Rio de Janeiro, United Nation’s Eco ’92 Events

Rolling Thunder was part of an evening titled, Dance for the Earth. Images from three dances, including Rolling Thunder, are below.

The top photograph was a section where all figures on sticks were made from recycled materials. On the top of the tree limb or bamboo was a head created for the ritual of celebration by dancers.

Lorena Cervantes, Still Rush Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Messenger Eagle

Messenger Eagle (See Dance for the Earth)

Conference, Earth and Environment, Expansion (80s and 90s), Metaphysical/Spirit, Solo Choreography, Stage Works

1992 – In America, Native America, and many other cultures, the Eagle is admired and held in great reverence. When working on the red earth sites in the Southwestern United States it is always a glorious moment when the Eagle soars above with its great power, strength, and beauty.

“For the performance, Messenger Eagle, the Eagle is revered as a messenger to and from the Gods. If you are in communication with the Eagle you could receive a message from the Gods or, perhaps, send a message to the Gods.” Maida Withers

Messenger Eagle premiered at Thomas Jefferson in 1992 as a central part of the evening-length program, Dance for the Earth – created by Maida with the Dance Construction Company. Dana Tai Soon Burgess represented the Eagle.

Messenger Eagle was also performed by Maida Withers Dance Construction Company with Brazilian dancers as part of the United Nation’s Earth Summit (Eco’92) programming in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The performance was on a large elevated stage on the beach sponsored by the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

View Dance for the Earth (minute 28:28 to 36:01):

Dana Tai Soon Burgess, soloist, with Maida Withers Dance Construction Company

Spirit Figures

Earth and Environment, Expansion (80s and 90s), Installation / Visual, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Stage Works, Tours, Work

1992 – Spirit Figures is part of Dance for the Earth created in commemoration and for the United Nation’s Earth Summer (Eco ’92) in Brazil. Spirit figures were created from discarded items (trash, like plastic) that create horrific destruction to the planet’s oceans and urban life. In the USA, combining a tree limb with discarded materials (deemed probably dangerous for the Earth environment), spirit figures were created to engage in a ritual of a community of dancers. The tree limbs were obtained in a storm drain (ravine/river) in Arlington, Virginia leading to the Potomac River and plastic became the predominate material for each figure (heads on poles) along with cans and bottles.

When Spirit Figures was recreated in Brasilia, Brazil for the UN Earth Summit, a Brazilian visual artist created figures like sea creatures from rubber and other available materials that were more appropriate for life in Brazil. Since there were no trees of any height in Brasilia, where the reconstruction occurred, bamboo (abundant in Brasilia) poles were used. Brazilian and American dancers performed together.

Eagle Messenger, solo, is included as part of the evening-length program, Rolling Thunder in Dance for the Earth.

Dance for the Earth

Earth and Environment, Expansion (80s and 90s), Installation / Visual, Stage Works, Voice and Text, Work

1992 – Title given to the evening-length performance that included the following six dances related to Maida’s earth consciousness projects:
Sky Cloud (1992),
Prologue – Cowboys and Indian Play (1991),
Messenger Eagle (1992),
Still Rush (1991),
Rolling Thunder “Transformation” (1992).

Dance for the Earth was presented at Thomas Jefferson Community Theater in Arlington, Virginia, February 7 & 8, 1992 in preparation for MWDCCo participation in the United Nation’s Earth Summit (Eco ’92) in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rolling Thunder was recreated with MWDCCo dancers and dancers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for concert presentation in an outdoor stage performance sponsored by the City of Rio de Janeiro.

Please view on stage works under separate titles in the archives: Sky Cloud, Prologue, Messenger Eagle, Spirit Figures, Still Rush, and Rolling Thunder “Transformation.”

Sky Cloud

Earth and Environment, Expansion (80s and 90s), Group Choreography, Installation / Visual, Political Topic, Stage Works, Work

Stacy Palatt, David Bentley, Dana Tai Soon Burgess

1992 – Dance work created by Maida Withers, a collaboration with Hilda Thorpe, paper maker, sculptor, recognized Washington, DC female artist from the 1950s. Thorpe created an incredible large fabric installation (white gauze with hand-made paper painted on by Hilda Thorpe) that filled the stage and also stretched out over the audience in the auditorium. Dancers moved with brilliant colored panels of taffeta, silk, and other brilliant colors of massive sheets of fabric.

Sky Cloud, part of the evening production, Dance for the Earth, is a “metaphoric dance, the wind, the voice of the Earth, based on a land site residency by Withers on the exotic White Sand Dunes of New Mexico.”

Maida and Hilda were both friends and collaborators. Hilda was an inspiring artist. She took people abroad to draw and paint. She was dearly beloved by all who knew her. She invited Maida to celebrate her birthday with performances by MWDCCO on two occasions in her studio in downtown Alexandria, Virginia. Maida enjoyed going with Hilda through the attic looking for objects and ideas for the birthday party performance. She insisted on dancers using her hand held objects made by Hilda from paper she created and then painted. That period of time in art was also interested in architecture that did not hide the heating and air conditioning vents and other functional objects behind walls. We enjoyed using her aluminum pipes turning them into crowns, drums, and other transformations in the dance Rolling Thunder.

“Hilda invited friends to her home for a special birthday celebration. She retired to bed earlier because she was feeling tired. When I left, about midnight, I called up the stairs, Good Night, Hilda. I love you. Hilda passed away in the middle of that night. We were deeply saddened and rejoicing in our final ceremony.” Maida Withers

Sky Cloud was part of the evening-length performance, Dance for the Earth. Sky Cloud begins with a solo by Sandra Kammann with a white paper hanging installation by Hilda Thorpe. Dana Tai Soon Burgess joins Sandra on stage in a solo balancing the stage with a second fabric installation. Dana introduces the large fabrics that are used in the opening section Sky Cloud for movement and sound.

Natalie Perren-Mariaux

Dana Burgess and Vincent Cacalano

Dana Tai Soon Burgess

Dana Tai Soon Burgess Group falling motionsRev72.
Balance Lorena72.
Vincent Cacalano and Lorena Cervantez
Stacy w Partner72.
Stacy Palatt and David Bentley

Dancers make vocal sounds (pitch) and speak as partner behind covers and uncovers the mouth.
Lorena Cervantes, Stacy Palatt; Vincent Cacalano, David Bentley

Still Rush – MWDCCo

Stage Works, Work

1992 – Still Rush was performed in Washington, DC by Maida Withers Dance Construction Company as part of Rolling Thunder in the Dance for the Earth concert.

Still Rush was first titled, Passage, but was changed for performance. The concept is about Maida’s pioneer ancestors who left from Missouri and Illinois (what was called “the plains”) and traveled by handcart, wagon, and on foot to what became known as the Salt Lake Valley – at that time not part of the US Territory. This is one of the great “migrations of man” for religious freedom. The ancestors were converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in Scandinavia and England who came to the United States looking to find a safe haven for religious freedom. Ultimately they were forced to leave the US (at the time) and settle what became known as the State of Utah.

SandS CycleS

Earth and Environment, Expansion (80s and 90s), Experimental, Films, Installation / Visual, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Metaphysical/Spirit, Original Music, Project, Site Work, Solo Choreography

See the full 30:00 minute movie below.

1991 – Dance and environment film shot on location at White Sands, New Mexico and Coral Dunes, Utah by Verable Call Cluff and edited by Cluff refrencing the Hero’s Journey* described by Joseph Campbell, psychologist, researcher, and scholar.

Maida Withers, Photographs by Verabel Call Cluff (See DCC Photos on the “Z” Drive for more selections).

“SandS CycleS is a poetic dance and environment video, a landsite process of creating art for the Earth and ecology. The film and photographs were shot on Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Kanab, Utah, birthplace of Withers, and White Sands National Park Service of New Mexico (the worlds largest gypsum dunefield).” Maida and Belle spent extended periods of time on location on the dunes. Maida would improvise continually discovering what was possible on the dunes, what plants and life were found there. The decision to edit related to Campbell’s Heroes Journey came later. Tea Schiano, artist, healer, educator who lives in New Mexico, joined in the White Sands project collaborating on prayer sticks and other initiatives.”

“SandS CycleS is the fruit of two women’s quest through the desert – Verabel Call Cluff on camera and Maida Withers as artist/performer. Images of Joseph Campbell’s Innocent, the Orphan, the Martyr, Caretaker, Warrior, Destroyer, Magician, and the Ruler are woven into the structure of SandS CycleS film.” (See Joseph Campbell information below.)

Music was created by Alissandru (Alex) Caldiero, poet, Salt Lake City, Utah. Alex is playing a Bendir drum in unusual ways and also vocalizing/singing/humming. Alex is a renowned performance poet and has many collaborations with Maida and the Company.

Each day the artists would shoot accommodating dunebuggies in Utah and US military testing bombs in the morning in New Mexico as well as fashion designers shooting on the White Dunes. Dunes are a challenging environment for the dancer requiring great strength to continually climbing in the deep, often hot, and moving sand. The slightest wind activates the sand that gets in people’s eyes and can destroy the camera. The film was shot, primarily, with a simple light weight hi-8 camera.

Film selected for showing: Eco ’92 Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as part of events sponsored by Celebration Artist for Ecology; Women Make Movies VIII, Washington, DC (1993); IMZ Dance Screen, Lyon, France (1994); as part of Withers film(s) showing by DanzLenz, presented by Arshiya Sethi, Kri Foundation at the Habitat Center, New Delhi, India (2011); Amazing Earth Festival, Kanab, Utah (Lecture on Zoom, May 2020).

https://maidadance.com/works/In-Winds-of-Sand/
SandS CycleS was projected onto the stage for performances of In Winds of Sand. The Installation for In Winds of Sand stage work performed in Washington, DC, Seoul, Korea, Caracas, Venezuela, others. Sands Cycles was projected onto the stage backdrop in select performances of Withers’ solo, In Winds of Sand. See further information: on January 21, 1994; Aula Magna Theatre on November 1, 1997; 13th Korean International Modern Dance Festival, Seoul, Korea on May 2, 1994; Munye Theatre on May 4, 1994; School for New Dance Development; Amsterdam, The Netherlands on June 13, 1996.

Issues of Gender – Exhibiton / Performance

Museums/Galleries, Work

1991 – Provocative exhibition stimulates provocative dance response throughout the Arlington Art Center by Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company. In 1991 there was a growing awareness and sensitivity to issues about gender. Maida Withers was commissioned to create a performance throughout Arlington Art Center, Arlington, Virginia. The exhibition was forward looking and the dance performance took a very progressive approach relating to the exhibitions presented January 25 through March 23, 1991. The dance performance occurred on February 14. 1991 on Valentines Day in the U.S.A.

1991 was an intense time related to gender issues and the Arlington Art Center was very daring and influential to dedicate the entire Center to such a controversial issue. The Company had access to all the installations. Our approach was to open raise issues raised by the individual exhibitions. Maida was primed for creating this show since she had been engaged for several years as an activist for the Equal Rights Amendment on issues related to fairness and equity for women.

We deeply regret we cannot identify the name of the musician, a saxophone player.

Photo Credit: Chris Dohse

Spirit Path / Migration / Remains

Stage Works

Must revisit hard copy in archives to ascertain any video, etc.
Does the concert at Dance Place include: Spirit Path / Migration / Remains, Crossing the Edge with John Lancaster and Leah Kline Tabassi, and Still Rush with the NYC cast (premiere)

View video of Crossing the Edge duet with John Lancaster and Leah Kline Tabassi: https://vimeo.com/91535011
View video of Still Rush rehearsal with NYC Cast: https://vimeo.com/91848739 (0:41:53)

1991 – Spirit Path / Migration / Remains – “The Spirit of Place” – the Anasazi (See Earth Spirit Rising for early performance) “The distilled and starkly primal movement style expresses the mystery and power – “the spirit of place” – of wilderness land sites of the Four Corners Area of the Southwest.” (Flyer Quote) Shared concert includes Still Rush and Crossing the Edge at Dance Place, January 12,/13, 1991.

Dancer for Crossing the Edge: John Lancaster, Mark Thompson, Leah Kline Tabassi, and Maida Withers – performed at Dance Place with Earth slides of Bruce Hucko and Kaleidoscopic Photos of Mark Thompson by Adam Peiperl???

Origin of the idea: 1989 Path (Yellow Springs Institute, Philadelphia, PA) and 1991 Path/Migration /Remains (Arlington, VA) support the choreographic development.

Prologue – Cowboys and Indians Play by Maida Withers

Conference, Earth and Environment, Expansion (80s and 90s), Experimental, Gender and Feminism, Post Modernism, Stage Works, Voice and Text, Work

1992 – Short solo dance and written text spoken by Maida Withers – a view of the west as a cowgirl and the great granddaughter of pioneering settlers in Utah. Presents that wit that underlies many of Withers’ works – a combination of hopefulness and cynacism.

Prologue was part of the evening-length presentation, Dance for the Earth.

See text in files: Dance for the Earth

Maida Withers Dance Construction Company

Life is best lived through dance

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