(1986) May 12  State of the Art examines the conflict of art and the artist in American society. The rapid development of arts management looms as a potential to independence and innovation by the artist. “Dance as business: first the embrace then the death.”
Press Release:  State of the Art is a seduction of the dance artists by the business of dance.  The question, “Does Dance as Business pose a threat to Dance as Art?”  State of the Art is a powerful dance-drama based on 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.  Management continues to be a problem 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.

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

State of the Art  Video (15:00) Award winning dance documentary.  Maida Withers Choreographer; Linda Lewett, Editor (see documentary support team below)

National award for Independent Cable Programming, Metro Arts Program, Fairfax, Virginia,
FCAC….Linda Lewett

State of the Art gestures served as the basis for the evening-length performance Trans Action (2014)Karen  Serio (Second cast soloist)Susan Short Bensinger, ?,  Annetta Wade (solo), Ben Watts, Tom Truss

Susan Short Bensinger     Ben Watts    Tom Truss

Tom Truss, Susan Short Bensinger,  Ben Watts

Annetta Wade, Soloist

Quartet above: Larry?, Maida Withers,
Taffy Schaeffer-Merkert, Ben Watts
Solo: Annetta Wade
.
Karen Serio, 2nd soloist

Below:
Art Photos by Adam Peiperl engaging his polarized figures with dancers from State of the Art (see below)

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