“Maida Withers‘ love of risk and the unknown has led her and us through dozens of daring choreographic expeditions over the past decade…less interested in charming spectators than in prodding them into unexpected modes of perception, she’s always preferred to take a grand leap into the abyss than an easy swim across the pool.   Stall. is challenging — no less to the audience than to the dancers; it’s also bold in conception, at once stark and vivid in atmosphere, and mammoth in dimension. …Though the thread of a distinctive personal vision runs through all of Withers’ works, no two of them are ever quite alike.”  October 22, 1981
Alan Kriegsman, Washington Post
1976 Pulitzer Prize for his work at The Washington Post

Stall. an evening-length collaborative performance features Maida Withers, choreography with the Dance Construction Company and a rotating loudspeaker and sound installation by John Driscoll, composer/sculptor, with Phil Edelstein, rotating loudspeaker animation. This  dialogue between art and science presents an innovative work integrating dance, music, art,  and electronic technology.

The dance, built on complex sequences of motion in a large circle on the periphery of the stage, is compelling and driving in its character.  The futurist appearance of the dance coupled with the power of the music gives Stall. its feeling of high technology drama.

A rotating loudspeaker set, suspended above the dance space, creates dynamic movement patterns which are sympathetic to the motion of the dancers below.  The rotating speaker disperses sound into the space taking advantage of the resonant and reflective characteristics of the performance space  interacting with four peripheral speakers creating a sonic architecture.

Stall.  Funded, in part, by National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Arts in Performing Arts.

Schedule:
(1981) May 4  thru May 22
Stall.  Three week artist-in-residence program with Akademia der  Künste, West Berlin, Germany  to create the new work – Stall.  Generous support was provided by Director, Nele Herling. Lecture-Demonstration May 22@22:30.

(1981) May 22 @ 22:30 pm – Lecture Demonstration
(1981) Stall.  May 23 and May 24 @ 22:30 – World Premier
Akademia der Künste Festival of Pantomine, Music, Dance, and Theater Festival at Ausstellungshalle (Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, in short, the Bundeskunsthalle),  West Berlin, Germany – 65 minutes continuous performance.

(1981)  October 20 @ 8:00 pm
Stall.  American Premiere
Washington Performing Arts Society’s 9th Street Crossings Festival in the historic Pension Building (National Register of Historic Places) currently National Building Museum, Washington, DC – 65 minutes continuous performance.    9th Street Crossing Festival included performances by distinguished artists – Philip Glass, David Behrman, Laurie Anderson, Lucinda Childs, Robert Ashley, and Maida Withers.

(1982) June 12 and 13 – New York City
Emanu-El Midtown YM-YWHA theatre – 344 E 14th Street, New York, NY assisted by Dance Theater Workshop, Inc, NYC, dance producer.

STALL. WASHINGTON, D.C. PREMIERE

National Building Museum, Washington, DC
Dance Construction Company / Rotating Loudspeaker / John Driscoll, Music / Phil Edelstein, Loudspeaker Animation

ROTATING LOUDSPEAKER
Suspended above the dancers at center stage, creates dynamic movement patterns which are sympathetic to the circular structure and distinctive motion of the dancers. Phil Edelstein works closely with John Driscoll through animation. The speakers are one unit that rotates both left and right at different speeds, stopping when directed, during Stall., to engage with loudspeakers positioned in four corners of the large building space (USA). Midway through the performance, dancers stop dancing (exit) and the rotating loudspeakers perform (see performance video 19:55 to 26:02). The instrumental loudspeaker disperses sound into the space and takes advantage of the resonant and reflective characteristics of the performance space.  Sound images, created by the interaction of the space and the rotating loudspeaker, combine with music for four peripheral speakers making an acoustical phenomena which could be described as a sonic architecture.  The preferred space is an open architectural space where the audience surrounds the dance space and is located between the rotating loudspeaker and the peripheral sound field.

DANCE

Choreography, by Maida Withers is built on a circular structure thru space requiring extreme stamina with choreography built on a continuous running base.  Stall. features dancers Francis Babb, Dale Crittenberger, Wendell Lockhart, Heather Tuck, and Maida Withers with light design by William DeMull and costume design by Beth Burkhardt

Photo Credits:  Dennis Deloria                                     

 









Heather Tuck, Wendell Lockhart, Maida Withers, Dale Crittenberger, Frances Babb

STALL.  Performances – no rotating loudspeaker
(1982) June 12 – 13  Emanu-El Midtown “Y” Concert, New York City, New York in a shared program with Dance Construction Company’s Families Are Forever.  Dance Theatre Workshop and David White, Founder, assisted with the presentation of Maida Withers Dance Construction Company in New York City.

(1982) June 16 – 18  George Washington University Summer Dance Artist’s Concert, Dorothy Betts Marvin Theater, downtown Washington, DC. The rotating loudspeaker was not present in this performance. An unusual neon sculpture, created by Margery Goldberg, distinguished Washington D.C. visual artist and curator, was featured in this performance of Stall.

AUDIO LINKS (John Driscoll, Composer):
Akademie der Kunste Audio Link, Berlin, Germany: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/khnc50m21zsxcbqz45185/AAuL9rDJm0COIHq8lKdJyJQ?rlkey=plugly6oufh6qvxv1eipof7re&dl=0

Pension Building (National Building Museum), Washington, DC:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/8sw130qmht23eoa3p1658/AHyv7xezNGIJhNoGDOTtY30?rlkey=qgsl2gdypdiijk4fpjy4ty8m7&dl=0

Note: Pension Building – audio recordings, different dates. Recordings are in .wav format but can be  converted.

ARCHIVE – PHYSICAL DATA: Poster and Card; Press Reviews; Stall. and Rotating Loudspeaker History; Correspondence; Reviews

What the press is saying

"Picture the dance scene without Maida Withers - how much duller, drier and shorter on surprise the last decade would have been. It was Withers who took the lead in shaking us up, startling us with new ideas and new methods, bullying us into questioning every assumption or received notion. It was Withers, very largely, who brought us into contact with the artistic turmoil of the late '60s and '70s, both by importations from the outside and by example in her own work. Then, as today, she was our prime evangelist of the novel and strange byways of dance, a tireless advocate of causes, aesthetic and otherwise, and a human juggernaut in the force of her wit, stamina and intelligence." Alan M. Kriegsman

"Maida Withers' love of risk and the unknown has led her and us through dozens of daring choreographic expeditions over the past decade...less interested in charming spectators than in prodding them into unexpected modes of perception, she's always preferred to take a grand leap into the abyss than an easy swim across the pool Stall. is challenging -- no less to the audience than to the dancers; it's also bold in conception, at once stark and vivid in atmosphere, and mammoth in dimension. ...Though the thread of a distinctive personal vision runs through all of Withers' works, no two of them are ever quite alike." October 22, 1981 Alan Kriegsman, Washington Post

"The sense of interruption- it's not stop, and it's not a start, but something in between, like the gliding into position of the rotating speaker." Alan M. Kriegsman

The dancing is a compelling play on sequences of motion. Motion and sound which work together to first fill the roo..then envelope it . . . Turning faster and faster. Stall. could be called "Sound sculpture - the space inherent in sound. TAGESSPIEGEL - 27 May, 1981

"The 'sonic architecture' disperses through space propelling the continuous flow of Withers' choreography. Circular patterns emerge, broken by large reaches toward the center, loops of the legs, bodies that knot and untangle."

"'Unlike some of my previous works," she says of 'Stall,' 'this is entirely non-improvisational. In fact, it is organized to a hairsbreadth of exact connections. I tried in this piece to be more austere and hypnotic." Noel Gillespie

"She's been called the iconoclast of Washington dance." Webster's defines iconoclast as "one who destroys cherished beliefs and traditions." "Destroy" is perhaps too strong a word. When applied to Withers, the definition might better read "one who tests the limits of established tradition, and goes beyond"
"Even though much of her work contains large doses of social commentary, it also can stand alone on the movement. The core of the work is movement… the sheer joyous exploration of how motion leads into motion, even when accompanied by silence." Carol Wonsavage

"There seemed to be cave and underwater reverberations. Choreographic development was akin to organic growth, including its imperfections." George Jackson

""Stall' is dance for pure kinesthetic enjoyment. It is a driving work, an hour long, which thrusts, turns, flows, and falls through space… Maida Withers is a dancers who dares to throw herself to the very edge of possibility in every movement, and Frances Babb was the epitome of the word exquisite." Frances Wessells

"Dale Crittenden (error - Crittenberger), on loan from the Dance Construction Company, performed his solo from Maida Withers' Stall., demonstrating effortless spins, limber splits and clear and masterful dancing throughout." Alexandra Tomalonis

a "forty-four-year-old human juggernaut in the force of wit, stamina, and intelligence." "tall and rangy" woman with the "face of a wagonmistress, an incredible shock of charcoal-ash hair with limbs as long as her body, choreographer, company director, impresario, prophetess, teacher." Michael A. Kriegsman

"It is a pity Ms. Wither's brilliant collaboration of dance, semi-improvised music, and dramatic lighting and shadows, seen at the U.S. Pension Building, was presented only once. It is the finest yet ofher many strong efforts over the last few years and deseres an audience beyond D.C. She was in top dancing form as were Frances Babb and Dale Crittenberger."

"Stall (is) challenging -- no less to the audience than to the dancers: it's also bold in conception, at once stark and vivid in atmosphere, and mammoth in dimension."

"In a sense, the Pension Building interior was itself a formidable collaborator. The vastness of the space and the awesome scale of its colonnaded galleries, suggesting both Roman grandeur and gothic mystery, turned the place into a combination set, sounding board, and phantasmagorical canyon."

"Though the thread of a distinctive personal vision runs through all of Withers' works, no two of them are ever quite alike, and 'Sall' is no exception -- it's one of a kind." Alan M. Kriegsman