(1986) May 12  State of the Art (“Dance and business: first the embrace then the death?”)  What is a possible scenario and impact of arts management on the independence and innovation of the artist.  State of the Art was funded in part by USAID project in Costa Rica (see below).

Press Release:
State of the Art is a seduction of the dance artists by the developing industry of business of dance / dance management.  The question, “Does Dance as Business pose a threat to Dance as Art?”  State of the Art is a powerful dance-drama, featuring a female soloist struggling with a quartet in white dress suits.  The drama reveals today’s artist’s struggle to survive the socio/economic demands of the 1980s.  Maida devised a list of statements by leading dance artists and sometime managers and asked the audience to match the statement with the artists name.  In 1986 perhaps the relationship of management and dance was more intense than today.  Often, management continues to be a challenge for the dance artist and is continually of concern to Withers when the focus shifts from questions related to art and becomes a commodity for the industry system.  What model(s) work for the variety of dance artists and dance art?

DC Composer – Michael Willis – created a driving musical score for twenty instruments realized on a synthesizer. (Music score available in MWDCCo file).

State of the Art  Video (15:00) FCAC Cable   Award winning dance documentary). https://maidadance.com/8054192/
National award for Independent Cable Programming, Metro Arts Program, Fairfax, Virginia, FCAC….Linda Lewett and Judy Lowe, filmmakers.

State of the Art gestures served as the basis for the evening-length performance Trans Action (2014)

State of the Art was originally created in 1985 as part of a training program in Dance at GWU sponsored by the USAid Program.  Fifteen professional dancers, choreographers, and educators from Costa Rica attended GW as part of the Experiment in International Living.  Maida was the Assistant Project Director and producer of the public dance concert.  Maida taught six week courses in Dance Kinesiology, Dance Improvisation and created State of the Art on three women and two men, professional Costa Rican Dancers.  The dance concert included five works including State of the Art presented on two evenings in Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre to sold out houses.  The Ambassador of Costa Rica, US Government and State Department dignitaries attended.

There are no photographs or program of the original Costa Rican dancers.

Note:  Maida was guest artist in residence for the Jovenes Festival Choreografos in San Jose, Costa Rica and returned there to perform/present workshop in 1988-89.

American Dancers:  State of the Art (Original  and  2nd  Cast)Karen  Serio (Second cast soloist)Susan Short Bensinger, (?), Annetta Wade (soloist), Ben Watts, Tom Truss

Susan Short Bensinger     Ben Watts    Tom Truss

Tom Truss, Susan Short Bensinger,  Ben Watts (2 photos above)

Annetta Wade, Soloist

Quartet above: Larry Graves,  Maida Withers,
Taffy Schaeffer-Merkert, Ben Watts
Soloist:  Annetta Wade
.
Karen Serio,  soloist, second cast

Below:
Art Photos by Adam Peiperl engaging his polarized figures with dancers from State of the Art (see below). Polarized objects not generated by computer but manipulating manually.

What the press is saying

For Maida Withers, the program she and her Dance Construction Company presented at the Prince George's Publick Playhouse Thursday night seemed like chamber music compared to the operatic dimensions within which she has worked most often in the past. The leanness and concision of the works was a virtue; long-windedness has been one of Withers' less productive inclinations. State of the Art described in a note as : "A victim of the forced romance between art and business, the solo artists struggles against social and economic forces that threaten artistic survival." Alan M. Kriegsman