“As solar rays eclipse a desert turret, birds of prey, wings outstretched in flight, emerge in silhouette against a rocky ledge. These, however are not natural canyon country sky dwellers. They are members of Maida Withers Dance Construction Company creating new dimensions in environmental expression. In some instances, the dancers perform on cliffs 1,000 feet in the air.”   

Above:  TUK (Tukuhnikivatz)
Film: Utah residency project,  June 1988
Above:  Photographer, Bruce Hucko
Dancer: Maida Withers, Utah Residency  Project – June, 1988
Location: Southeastern Utah
Listing: earth dance performances and films

UTAH PROJECT / RESEARCH

1988 – 1994  Maida Withers,  choreographer and dancer, born and raised in southern (Kanab) and central (Salem) Utah, returned to the land of her birth in Utah during an eight-year period, 1988 thru 1994, to study and remember the Earth and reengage with ideas, both ancient and new for creating performance and film. This complex endeavor is referred to as “the Utah Project.”

“In 1988, I returned to the land of my birth in Utah with a group of artists for a five-week experiment of living and dancing on selected land sites to create a dance video.  Each day we understood better how to join with the forces of nature.  We experienced the extraordinary physical and spiritual powers of this place and its ancient inhabitants, and we glimpsed our most inward selves.  Slowly I began to make linkages between my concern with new art, my own culture and these ancient sites and people.  The connections involve the relationship of nature and culture and, more importantly, raise questions relating to the very meaning and function of art.”  Maida Withers, 1990

Five – week Utah Residency:
The land-site residency in Southeastern Utah, summer of 1988, included the following artists:  four professional dancers – Tim Harling, Emily Ojala, Krissy Lamb, and Will Goins Morreau, Cherokee dancer, chanter-singer; James Byrne, an extraordinary filmmaker, New York City, and Bruce Hucko, a world-class earth photographer and author, Moab, Utah.  Joe Pachak, a visionary guide and specialist, Bluff, Utah, affiliated with White Mesa Institute in Southern Utah, was instrumental in guiding the selection of four specific locations for research and filming during the five-week residency.  Pachak was well acquainted with the land and the history that supported the diversity desired for our dance project.  Bruce Hucko, Moab, documented dancers on diverse and challenging landsites during the five-week residency.  Bruce continuously supports stage and film projects of the Company with contributions of his extraordinary photographs.  Sunny and Hardy Redd,  La Sal Ranch, Grand County Utah,  generously provided their winter home in Monticello, Utah, for five weeks and allowed daily use of their 15 passenger van to drive dancers to our various locations (two to three hours drive) for the daily, day-long shoots.  The Redd’s, cattle ranchers, knowledge of the region was critical for the earth project and their generosity supported dancers in very personal ways that gave dancers the daring and stamina to dance in the hot summer sun daily with the ever present sense of danger of dancing in such challenging settings.

The 1988 five-week summer residency in Southeastern Utah included the following: four professional dancers from Maine, Arizona, New York City, Virginia, and Oklahoma;  a brilliant filmmaker from New York City, James Byrne;  and a world-class photographer, Bruce Hucko, Moab, Utah.  The situation was new to all involved and everyone had to adapt to daily  physical challenges and exposure under the hot desert Sun.  Daily actions involved locating sites, improvising on location,  creating, rehearsing, filming choreography – photo cameras and video cameras.  We discovered amazing possibilities (i.e. waking up at 5:30 am after an overnight stay in sleeping bag) to discover our shadows cast on a large red rock creating astonishing petroglyphs.  An actual ancient habitat site was one of our locations.  We carefully honored all locations at all times, recognizing the historic and sacred aspects of varied sites.  Nature delivered a very rare rainstorm so the empty red earth bowls soon became water holes for improvisation and story telling of birthing and survival. We became intoxicated with our relationship to each site.

The first five-week residency featured  group work and solos in Utah locations. The next five years covered locations in the Four Corner’s States (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona) with research, improvisation, and performance (for the camera) by Maida Withers with Verabel Call Cluff, filmmaker, lifetime friend and Utah resident.
“Belle, drove her car…..we talked…..we cried…..we learned from our new friendships…..explorations/celebrations.”   Of particular interest was time spent in New Mexico on White Sands. Those years of research was the basis many earth related dance works created and performed by the Dance Construction Company and/or Maida Withers in the USA, China, Korea, France, Brazil, Venezuela, others.

“We rose with the Sun and laughed with the stars.” (Withers) As artists, physical risks is always present while dancing and performing on and at extremely diverse and demanding earth sites. So much to learn about light and dark and heat and desert animal life.  Generally, Withers and Cluff slept out of doors in sleeping bags, generally under the stars,  in campgrounds, occasionally with distant relatives.  We attended social events and celebrations on the reservation(s) – unforgettable, indeed.  At that time, there was no legal limitation on attending indigenous celebrations.  We treasure our friends from that time. The Utah Project influenced the creation of  films and stage projects (see below):

Special Projects  –  Outcomes
<  Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz, an epoch work on ancient and contemporary earth consciousness, was formally commissioned by  Lincoln Center in 1996 for performance at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, GREAT DANCE in the BandShell Series, Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center, New York City, NY attended by 2500 people.  This astonishing work featured a  spectacular film projected on large butte shaped structures that were moved in performance creating an unusual live environment on stage. Film, projected on stage, was based on the Utah research and video footage. The 60′ bandshell received breath taking earth photos by the famous Bruce Hucko.

Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz

<  Omami Projecto: 100 Artists for Ecology from  around the globe attending Eco ’92.   Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company presented Dance for the Earth, evening-length concert, for the Opening Ceremony, Omame Projecto, National Theatre, Brasilia, Brazil, May 12, 1992 and participated in the United Nation’s Earth Summit (Eco ’92) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil activities and events with 100 world artists, June 3 -14, 1992.

<  TUK and other earth related films shown in festivals in India, Turkey, Australia, France, Brazil, Virginia, and Utah.  TUK I was the recipient of the John Muir Award for Outstanding Filmmaking (2009) at the Yosemite International Film Festival, Yosemite, California

<  Shaman based solo, Ancient Lands – Ancient Peoples: Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea

Related Earth Projects – Click on https to view online “earth” VIDEOS
Maida Withers Dance Construction Company works for stage and film projects related to the Earth can be viewed by clicking on a https:// below:
Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz (NYC Lincoln Center Premiere): https://vimeo.com/7983497
Tukuhnikivatz: (01:01:30) Film Installation, Stafani Altomare-Sese (NYC Lincoln Center Premiere): https://vimeo.com/8077130
Tukuhnikivatz (39:58) Jamille Wallick, Editor – NYC Lincoln Center Video Installation: https://vimeo.com/468693246
TUK (Tukuhnikivatz) (Film) (18:04) Ludovic Jolivet, Editor: https://vimeo.com/31371574/
TUK I: Film Trailer (02:29) Ludovic excerpt:  https://vimeo.com/99726485
Tukuhnikivatz (12:46) Stefani Altomare-Sese, Installation Editor:  https://vimeo.com/464010414
Tukuhnikivatz (00:52):  https://vimeo.com/127958843
Dance for the Earth  Evening length work in 4 parts (next three videos):
Transformation / Rolling Thunder: https://vimeo.com/101003244
Sky Cloud (dance/vocals):  https://vimeo.com/100999165
Prologue –  How the West Was Won – Cow Boys and Indians Play (Dance & Text, Maida Withers) https://vimeo.com/100928731
Rainforest Awakens (online during COVID) https://vimeo.com/470650599 (25:46)
Ledge (Moving Earth / Dunes; Mountain Birthing; Path / Migration) Cable TV https://vimeo.com/100503881 check the ones in red
ISO SOLO https://vimeo.com/426061635
In Winds of Sand   https://vimeo.com/101630192
Earth Spirit Rising (aerial entrance) https://vimeo.com/93606130   (58:05)
Ancient Lands Ancient Peoples (1994) Maida Withers Shaman solo, Korea Red Earth Stage:    https://vimeo.com/101619257

RESEARCH
Bruce Hucko, Earth PhotographerMaida Withers @ White Sands
Verabel Call Cluff, Photographer
New Mexico – White Sands National Park
Tour Shaman solo – Hong Kong, China, Korea

Utah Project – Creating ON SITE
Crissy Lamb, AZ, and Tim Harling, NYC, Dance Collaborators
@ Muley Point, Utah
Bruce Hucko, Photographer

                                                                     Tim Harling
                                                          @Muley Point, Utah
                                                     Bruce Hucko, Photographer

What the press is saying

"As solar rays eclipse a desert turret, birds of prey, wings outstretched in flight, emerge in silhouette against a rocky ledge. These, however are not natural canyon country sky dwellers. They are members of Maida Withers Dance Constrution Company creating new dimensions in environmental expression. In some instances, the dancers perform on cliffs 1,000 feet in the air. The company is at work in San Juan Country producing two projects: an experimental dance video for television broadcast and background footage for a stage presentation to premiere in Washington DC. During their five-week stay in San Juan the dance troupe - chosen for their outdoor experience and interest in the project - have hiked, camped, rehearsed, and performed on location. Several sites in the county were selected for natural props. Arches, cliffs, alcoves, monuments and aspect groves became implements in an interpretive portrayal of the environment and the cultural aspects inherent in the landscape. San Juan county was chosen for the project because of its primitive nature. Withers, a native of Southern Utah, says she feels, "There is a basic national ignorance about Utah." She wants to expose the "tremendous amount of artistic wealth in the area." Along with that, her desire is to capture the cultural essence of the region. She says, we feel a connetion with the history of the area. I think there is a very powerful spiritual thing in this land. When one finds holes carved out where people have lived or wagon tracks worn in the rocks, there's a sense of physical struggle...a feeling of participation in something bigger than self." Hardy and Sunny Redd of Monticello opened their home to the dancers for use as a base camp. Dr. Kay Shumway of the College of Eastern Utah San Juan Center helped establish the dancers into the area. Joe Pachak of the White Mesa Institute provided assistance with site location and background information. San Juan School district allowed the use of Mexican Hat Elementary to recharge equipment. The LDS churches in Blanding and Monticello were utilized for rehearsals and local merchants willingly acquired special foods for the dancers vegetarian diets. Withers stated tha the non cash donations, the generosity, enthusiasm and trust of the people in the area helped make the project possible. " Jody Bailey

Earth Dancer