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.

*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.”  Cluff’s video was editing in context with these in min

What the press is saying

"... demonstrates Withers' emphasis on the earth as healthy... She insists that knowledge resides in nature, and that it is up to us find ways to receive it. Artistic energy can be a powerful facilitator. " Amy Rosenthal- Art in Progress