TV Ad & Interview – screen of TV:
Chairman of the Board, Washington Performing Arts Society, on local ABC-TV daytime show, with performance by Brook Andrews and Maida Withers live in ABC-TV Studio promoting 1977 City Dance, historic Warner Theater, downtown Washington, DC:    https://vimeo.com/90683470/

(1977) May 7 Put on the Music Let’s Dance   Warner Theatre – “City Dance Event”
Fifty-minute show/entertainment piece, a performance based by MWDCCo on  film dance, 1930s and ’40s (CABARET).  An actress, dancer – Kay Shepherd, live on stage at a dressing table, sensually puts on nylons while reminiscing over memorabilia about her life as a stage dancer/actress, grieving over her “lover” at war, reflecting on life in the USA in the 1940’s.  In Put on the Music – Let’s Dance, there are short segments of entertainment style dancing that is loosely based on film character prototypes and show business / commercial/entertainment dancing/dancers (men and women).
Music: a collection of selections of period recorded music.
Actress: Kay Shepperd, a central character at the front of the stage, goes down memory lane while enjoying the privacy of herself in space that had wall paper from the period and props from the period such as photographs of women with male dressed in army uniform, books of the period, movie star photos.

Put on the Music – Let’s Dance is a direct reflection of Maida’s early involvement in tap dancing and musical theater. Tap Dancing is how Maida became so skilled in dance improvisation! Maida also taught the ballroom dance styles at Rick’s College and other venues as well.  There is high respect for “great stage couple dancers” – “deep respect for dancers featured on film.”

The original performance of Put on the Music – Let’s Dance (see separate web page on MaidaDance) was created for the Washington Project for the Arts and presented in an intimate cabaret-type setting with the audience located near the dancers for more intimacy…the setting encouraging audience laughter and response the humorous antics and facial expressions of the performers.  In this version, the women even played the role of men and the men the role of women in the “tap section” – By the Light of the Sil’vry Moon.  This intimate cabaret version was more authentic – personally engaging for the close-up audience, performed in authentic clothes from 2nd hand stores. The polished (2nd) version was to premiere in the spectacular authentic entertainment theater – Warner Theater, downtown DC with a raked stage and traditional, lush, art-deco theater. Costumes were designed for the show.

(1977) May 7 The second, more polished and sophisticated version,  was re-created for City Dance performance at Warner 1977, sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society.  For the second version, dancers wore authentic satin white costumes and white tuxedos designed and created for the period by Beth Burkhardt, Washington, DC costume designer and modern dancer.

1977 documentation:  no “live performance” video of the 1977 stage performance at Warner Theatre.  A video was shot at the rehearsal in Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre the day of the Warner Theatre performance.  There was no opportunity for a full run  of Put on the Music Let’s Dance for the City Dance performance at Warner Theater, May 7, 1977.

Rehearsal (no costumes) Day of evening performance at Warner Theater, May 7, 1977

1977 Rehearsal short (no costumes) Building K Gymnasium, Washington, DC

City Dance history:  the idea of a city-wide celebration of dance in Washington, DC was spawned by a GW MA dance student who engaged WPAS to do a city-wide dance event at the Warner Theatre in downtown Washington, DC.  For the program, two area dance companies shared an evening with each taking 45 minutes for performance.  MWDCCo was honored to share a concert with  the beloved Melvin Deal’s African Heritage Dancers and Drummers.

Warner Theatre – Dance Sequence for Put on the Music…Let’s Dance:
Kay Shepperd, a central character, actress, at the front/side of the stage  goes down memory lane while enjoying the privacy of herself in a space that had wall paper from the period and props from the period: photographs of women with male’s dressed in army uniform, books of the period, movie star photos. etc.

1977 – Program Order – Sequence:
Jive (each dancer acting out as a musician in an imaginary band)
Long Tail, Dexter Gordon;
Runway (fashion ending in feather headdress):
Milton Drake-Gen Oakland
Vibes (innocent male duet, vibration) Baby Dodds
The Stomp (quartet in military uniforms), Baby Dodds
Kay Sheppherd (reading from text – proper etiquette)
Dreamtime (indulgent simplistic love), Ryerson-Watts-Eaton
Roseland (ballroom dance competition), Scott Joplin, Waller-Razaf
Silv’ry Moon (Tap in DRAG), Madden-Edwards
Struttin’ (drunkard solo with curious trio behind), Ferdinand”Jelly Roll Morton
Rose Red (Spanish solo by Withers)
Finale (quartet recalls dance styles), Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines

Brook Andrews (Ballroom Dance)
Brook Andrews, John Bailey, Sally Neff  (Fashion Runway) Brook Andrews and John Bailey (Sailor On Leave)
Maida Withers and Sally Neff
Brook Andrews, Maida Withers, John Bailey, Sally Neff
Maida Withers (Ballroom Dance)

Maida Withers and Brook Andrews (Ballroom Dance)

Cast

Brook Andrews and Maida Withers (Ballroom Dance)

Interview on ABC-TV:  https://vimeo.com/105665739/
1975 Video @ WPA:  https://vimeo.com/108899561/

What the press is saying

"City Dance "77" is here and it's an idea whose time is ripe. Dance is becoming everywhere, as an art form for everyone.....City Dance has been designed, in part, to put this treasury of talen on display for a much broader public thanhas seen it in the past. It's a week-long festival of area dance troupes. Bringing Washington dance to Washingtonians was one of hte primary motivations for Nancy Pittman, the young dance graduate from George Washington University who first thought up the "City Dance" concept more than two years ago.
"The Dance Construction Company, led by Maida Withers explores the frontiers of avant-garde dance, and has performed in such offbeat sites as cemeteries, sidewalks, elevators, and cafeterias. " Alan M. Kriegsman

"...four dancers' sophisticated, super-polished,urbane, witty and slick depiction of the dance style of the 30's...one of the most successful ventures of the many of this kind I have seen." Frances Wessells