1989 – The Company was selected for a two-week residency, May 9 to 21,1989, at the prestigious Yellow Springs Institute located outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – an international center for art and ideas.  The Institute supported the Company with living quarters, technical facilities, and space to begin to create a new work. During the 2-week resident Withers created Path with dancer James Murphey, John Lancaster, Cristy Lamb, Anne McDonald, and Maida Withers; live music by William Eaton.  Visual projection included video by James Byrne, NYC,  and photos of earth photographer, Bruce Hucko, Utah.

This work set the pattern for many earth works to come including the Shaman solos,  This in a curious way was related to Maida’s activism in feminism.

The residency occurred one year after Maida began her 7-year odyssey of visits to Utah and the Four Corner’s area with filmmaker, Verabel Cluff, to reconnect to the place of her birth and her family’s roots.

Path, a multifaceted work created at Yellow Springs was the inspiration for choreography: Spirit Path / Migration,  Earth Spirit Rising,  Dunes, and other Earth works created from 1989 through the premiere of Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz at Lincoln Center in 1996.

For further development of concept and choreography, view: Spirit Path / Migration; Ancient Lands, Ancient Peoples, others.