United Nations Earth Summit (Eco ’92): (1992)(June 3- June 14, 1992)
Maida Withers was invited by Marilyn Wood, International Celebration organization to participate with 100  International Artists for Ecology  in the first United Nation’s Global Earth Summit, Eco ’92, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (June 3–14, 1992).  Also…a partnering group for the International Celebration Artists was the leadership of the Yanomami tribal people in Brazil.  Our goal with other international artists was to bring attention to the urgent global issues of the global environment through the perspective of global artists.

Marilyn Wood, founder of International Celebration, was a fearless  and creative artist who envisioned artist’s important voice in the international events in Brazil.  Our group of international artist included a famous fire/street artist, an artist creating a spectacular water event with a ship in the bay, other artists with strong views about life and the possible role, influence of art.

May 1992:  MWDCCo and other International Celebration artists arrived in Brasilia, the national capital of Brazil, one month prior to Eco ’92 in Rio de Janeiro, to express our shared interests in and concerns about planet earth (Brazilian legislators and others related to the international summit reside in Brasilia).  Artists taught classes and workshops in public schools working on environment projects through the arts with children and teachers.  Some projects were presented out of doors on the large national “mall” in Brasilia, a mall similar to the US Mall in Washington, DC.  In Brasilia, Maida performed two solos from the US Dance for the Earth Concert.

MWDCCo projects in Eco ’92:
* Workshops and performances in Brasilia, Brazil, prior to Eco ’92 – May 1992
* Stone Garden – commission by  Museu De Arte Moderna Rio DeJaneiro

Stone Garden – UN Earth Summit

* Rolling Thunder – USA and Brazil dancers – beach stage
* Joined in dance and performance events in various locations on Sugarloaf Mountain with artists from around the world.

In Brazil we had excellent support of the mayor and the city government of Rio de Janeiro.  A beautiful large outdoor concert stage was set up on the beach by the City of Brazil to present local and international events to large public audiences.  MWDCCo reconstructed and performed the company’s dramatic environment work, Rolling Thunder, that, in Brazil, featured American and Brazilian dancers who rehearsed and learned the choreography for the dramatic evening public presentation on the beach stage.  “There was so much excitement about creative engagement to move to a new level of commitment.” (Marilyn Wood).
MWDCCo was honored to receive an invitation and support from the famous Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro. Maida was commissioned to create an outdoor site work in the beautiful and challenging block-long Rock Garden.  For the dance, Stone Garden, dancers wearing skin colored leotards, crawled and slithered cautiously over hard rocks from one end to the other at dusk.  We wet some of the rocks to make the crawl (by inches at a time) a little easier.  We positioned tiny lights down in the rocks to make interest  illusions of our crawl.  This amazing slow, intense, unusual drama, performed at dusk, included Didgeridoo music by an artist from Canada along with MWDCCo dancers and three invited Brazilian dancers. The pounding sound of Ken Harisuka, Japanese rock artist, was accompaniment from the hammer pounding as he made a line drawing on the large  stone/rock contributed by the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro.  Regina Miranda, national dance treasure in Brazil, was an important collaborator through her vision as performance curator at the Museum de Arte Moderna.

MWDCCo dancers participated with other international artist through improvisation performance events in various location on the famous Sugar Loaf Mountain. Maida and friends such as Gloria McLean, dancer from NYC, and Marilia, extreme vocalist (Brazil / Japan) participated in creating various events.
Maida with another American dancer carried a large white bed sheet in an official  “protest parade” down the entire ocean beach, bearing the text, “STOP Bushwhacking the Planet.”  This was a humorous but intense reminder to all that USA’s President Bush DID NOT attend Eco ’92.  MWDCCo dancers (Maida Withers, Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Stacy Palatt, Janine Ploetz, and Sandra Kammann) contributed greatly to the arts environment in both Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro for this historic summit. We were grateful for the privileges given us at the Summit.  We knew at that time, Rolling Thunder and Stone Garden would be the first of many projects to in Brazil by Maida and DCCo.

Gratitude expressed to Marilyn Wood who invited us to engage in this powerful moment in history of global commitment, including the arts, as a vital vehicle, to planet earth – Brazil, ‘Eco 92.