“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. 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 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.”  Note: Maida Withers and Verabel Call Cluff, filmmeker, returned to Utah and the Four Corners area (New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona) for filming and research from 1989 to 1994.  For more information:  https:///maidadance.com/works/utah-project-research-residency/

UTAH * SPIRIT PLACE * SPIRIT PLANET * TUKUHNIKIVATZ

(1996) August 20  Utah*Spirit Place*Spirit Planet*Tukuhnikivatz,  evening-length multimedia performance by Maida Withers with the Dance Construction Company, commissioned by Lincoln Center for  Great Dance in the Bandshell, New York City, NY, attended by 2500 patrons.  Video: by Adam Peiperl – restrictions in the audience.

(1996) August 20 – 60:00 minutes Tukuhnikivatz – Film Installation conceived by Maida Withers, Editor: Stephani Altomare.  Extraordinary visual images, projected on 16′ moving canvas “buttes on wheels” – on stage.  Includes video and slides of exotic land sites,  dancers on earth sites, footage collected by Withers that establish the land as the spirit of place. The stage becomes earth’s interior, abstract canyon, a ledge, mountain birthing, sand, earth and sky, along with other visionary creations, to tell a story – a mythical narrative.   https://vimeo.com/8077130/

UTAH * SPIRIT PLACE * SPIRIT PLANET * TUKUHNIKIVATZ (Ute)
A futuristic evening-length multilayered performance that maps a trajectory from the past to the future in a way that universally links us to the mystery and power of wilderness lands in the Four Corners Area of the United States and the Native American spirit and ancestral voice that resides there ‑ tracking and redefining this spirit for modern times to renew and celebrate our consciousness and connection to planet earth.

Program
Part I:  “Earth/Spirit” Dancers in the guise of future and past spirit (light, darkness, water woman, messenger eagle, angel messenger/light being, spider woman, darkness/Batman, noble warrior, trickster, wisdom, and shaman) emerge from continually changing projected environments.   These figures reflect centuries-old rock art carved or painted on  canyon walls.

Black and white photos by Aaron Deemer

Shaman (shot on location (Utah), Verabel Call Cluff, Photographer

Part II: “Passage”  Dancers, man and woman, move as earth and landscape, rock and moving earth/dunes ‑ sounding the environment, signaling, and aerial dancing in earth’s deep belly ‑ marking the sun by creating shadows in a human chain as living petroglyph ‑ migrating, partnering and working together creating a metaphor for the survival of all life.

Part III: “Transformation” Dancers, moving with vibrant energy, combine the ancient with the future, and come to a profound unison and simplicity, a peaceful transforming and knowing as they adopt the masks of the spirit figures.

*Maida Withers and Verabel Call Cluff, filmmaker, returned to Utah and the Four Corner’s (New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona) for filming and research twice a year from 1989-1994.  For more information:  https:///maidadance.com/works/utah-project-research-residency/
*Maida Withers and Verabel Call Cluff, filmmaker, returned to Utah and the Four Corner’s (New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona) for filming and research twice a year from 1989-1994.  For more information:  https:///maidadance.com/works/utah-project-research-residency/

PHOTOS

Bruce Hucko,  Earth Photographer, Moab, Utah
Bruce Hucko, Projected Utah Earth, Lincoln Center Bandshell

Dance Construction Company
PHOTOGRAPHS – Lincoln Center – GREAT DANCE IN THE BANDSHELL
Black and white photos by Aaron Deemer
Sarah Slifer and  Alesia Young,  Water Women – Spirit Figures

Will Goins Moreau, Cherokee Nation, Singer, Dancer, Drummer

Joseph Mills, Trickster; Goon (name TBD),  Vincent Cacalano
Brent Michael Davids, Mohican Nation, Musician and Composer

Alesia Young (Water Woman, Spirit Figure) and Sarah Slifer


Maida Withers – Solo, Shaman

Joseph Mills, Trickster,  and Giselle Ruzany, Angel Messenger

Will Moreau Goins, Cherokee Nation, Singer & Dancer
Reginald Ellis Crump and Joseph Mills, Trickster

Joseph Mills, Regi Crump, Alann ???,  Sarah Slifer, Helanius Wilkins

Joseph Mills, Trickster  and  GOON (Name TBD)

Sarah Slifer and Helanius Wilkins

Reggie Crump and Spirit Ghost
Dance Construction Company
Maida Withers – solo

Dance Construction Company

Sarah Slifer, Joseph Mills, Giselle Ruzany

Giselle Ruzany, Helanius Wilkins, Spirit Ghost


Dance Construction Company — Spirit Darkness/Batman (2)

“We honor and recognize the importance of these lands to Anasazi (ancestral Puebloan), Navajo Nation, Zuni, Hopi, and Ute.  Of particular influence is the Great Gallery rock art panel and others in the vicinity generally called the “Barrier Canyon Style” and are attributed to the Desert Archaic culture who lived in Utah from 8000 BC through 500 AD.”
Maida Rust Withers

MUSIC: 
Original music under the direction of Brent Michael Davids, Mohican,  created for Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivataz, performed live, contains elements of Native American tribal music combined with Western experimental traditions and techniques. The music is played live by a four-member ensemble of men and women.  The music includes soprano and bass flutes (crystal quartz), percussion, double bass, classical guitar, traditional Native American instruments, as well as unique instruments designed by Brent Michael Davids, Native American composer.  The human voice is featured and includes a wide range of sounds, Native American songs, language, and text.  Dancers use voice and movement sounds on stage as well.

 Brent Michael Davids, Director / Musician
“In Utah * Tukuhnikivatz, the instrumentalists regard their instruments less as musical instruments and more as talking sticks, singing reeds, pounding heartbeats, rustling winds, swarming voices, shooting thunder and breathy whispers.”  Artists: strong in indigenous and shamanistic musical traditions who are also engaged in experimentation form a collaborative team under the direction of a Native American composer.  The music makes connection with the choreography and the projected visual images.

STAGE SET:
Maida Withers, Concept / Set Design: Thomas Fiocchi
Film and Visual Images:  Adam Peiperl, James Byrne, Verabel Cluff
Earth Slides: Bruce Hucko

Set and Visual Element:
The stage setting for Utah * Tukuhnikivatz is a visually stunning and technically compelling, with the latest multimedia techniques creating a modern and futuristic scenario for our timeless spirit.  The multimedia installation includes images, in video format, projected on 16-foot high movable “buttes” on stage with a possible slide installation on surrounding surfaces.  The performance video combines images of ancient Utah rock art (petroglyphs and pictographs) with daring earlier footage of the dancers at the Utah earth sites, art photographs of sandstone earth (an ancient sea bed), images of soaring eagles, animals, abstract landscapes and kaleidoscope images in motion, and NASA films of planet earth and space voyages with footage of a galaxy being born, and an all-consuming black hole.  Interaction of projected images and movement of the sets (five 16-foot-high movable “buttes” and hand-held screens) creates a magical interplay between the dancers and images (both static and moving), creating a fantastic manipulation of time, space and reality.

Projected images of video and slides establish the land as the spirit of place.  The stage becomes earth’s interior, abstract canyon, a ledge, mountain birthing, stone cities, sand, earth and sky.  Dancers create spirit forms, ceremonial figures based on ancient rock art, with use of exaggerated costumes, headgear and body paint,.  Masked performers on stage are juxtaposed with projected images of dancers as they weave time and space, past and future, in the guise of moving shadows, squatting figures, eagles, stampeding migratory animals, people, and ancient/futuristic spirit figures.  Finally in a stage bathed in swirling light, the transformation is complete for arrival to the new world, the Fifth World, Tukuhnikivatz.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
World Premiere
(1996) August 20  Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz was commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, to premiere the evening-length multimedia production  in the prestigous  Lincoln Center GREAT DANCE in the BANDSHELL series for Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors at Damrosch Stage and Bandshell at Lincoln Center in New York City. Director Jenneth Webster was instrumental in the commission. The one-hour multi-media production featured live, original music by the well-known Mohican musician/composer, Brent Michael Davids.  Over 2500 patrons attended the multi-layer production that featured live/original music ensemble featuring a singer, drummer, native American vocals – a 60 minute visual feast.  A spectacular film of dancers on exotic land sites in Utah and the Four Corner’s area – land occupied by ancient indigenous peoples.  Images are projected on six moving screens on wheels in the shape of Buttes.

Contributors
Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz is made possible, in part, by the generous contributions of Maida Withers, The Dance Construction Company, John Alahouzos, Market Development Group, Inc., Jay W Glasmann and the Glasmann Foundation, Geraldine Lenvin, Sunny and Hardy Redd, the Redd Foundation, US air, and individual friends of the dance company.  Tukuhnikivatz was produced, in part, during a residency at The George Washington University, Department of Theatre and Dance, with support from the Office of Sponsored Research, Summer and Experimental Programs, and GW Television.  The performance video was made possible by the generous support of GWTV and staff, Ted Christensen, Paul Caffrey, Mike Rosetti, Stefani Altomare-Sese and others.

Art Contributors
New York Notes: Music and Fractals, Benoit B. Mandelbrot, Charles Wuorinen, Richard F. Voss, F. Kenton Musgrave; KUED Television, Utah; At the Canyon’s Edge, Bruce Hucko and Canyonlands Field Institute; Artists: Joe Pachak, Tony Anderson, Craig Law, Becky Knouff, Cristy Powell; NASA; USDA Forest Service; Interior Department; Andrew Cacho Dancers and Drummers; Yordanos Baharu; Adam Peiperl’s continuously moving kaleidoscope images are taken by permission of Prime Lens Productions, Inc. from the video “Barbara Mitchell’s SPECTRASPHERE.”

Residency at Utah State University:
Artemis Preeshl, professor of dance and theatre at Utah State Univeristy , presented the following with the support of a grant from Marie Eccles Caine Foundation to host Maida Withers Dance Construction Company in the Utah preview presentation of Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz (work in progress) an epoch work commissioned by Lincoln Center for Lincoln Center GREAT DANCE in the BANDSHELL, NYC.
This work was part of the inaugural season of The Performance Hall in the Caine Center for the Arts in 2006 where Artemis Preeshl, dance professor, was part of the curating team at USU.  Two Utah State University professors contributed excellent visual objects and  presentations with photographs, in public forums, based on Utah indigenous research and scholarly writings.

“Withers is a brilliant teacher.  Her students were very intelligent and responded to all of our movement improvisation and composition problem solving related to Earth mythology of historic Utah indigenous peoples.” Artemis Preeshl, Dance Professor

Perspective / Influence / Purpose
Partnership of Maida and Verabel is strong and influential. Our families are both early participants in the founding of what became the State of Utah.  Our friendship began in Arlington, Virginia where we raised our children.  In Utah, we drove and talked, asked everyone anything. We were astonished, always at our discoveries.  Something profound was happening.  Two women alone in the desert….like Thelma and Louis. Video was obtained by hiking into various locations – often in “off the guide” places in Utah and sometimes on private land of non-native people.  We talked as often as possible with the Hopi, Navajo, and other indigenous peoples living in the region. Great respect is given to the sacred pictographs and petroglyphs in the region.  We were very conscious of the sacredness of all/any of the symbols and markings/drawings on the canyon walls.  These sacred images have often been defaced and/or destroyed and obviously treated with disregard and disrespected. During that time, non-tribal people were allowed to attend the social celebrations in various indigenous villages which we appreciated deeply. A five-week residency of dancers and filmmakers at Earth sites in South Eastern Utah provided the primary video footage of other dancers on land sites.  Several solos originated from time in New Mexico on White Sands National Park and Kanab, Utah Coral Dunes and many other locations in Southern Utah.

The Will and David Rust families respected and had interest in the land, including the Green and Colorado Rivers and, especially, the Grand Canyon. David Rust, Maida’s grandfather’s brother, is an historic figure who establishing early environmental tourism, Rust Deluxe Tours, taking dignitaries and authors such as Zane Grey on horseback to various locations in southern Utah along with boat tours in wooden boats on the great Colorado River and Green River.  At the North Rim, Rust Trail leads down to Rust Camp, honoring David Rust, located along the Colorado River.

Maida’s  father, Woodruff, and mother, Isabelle Martina Luke Rust and grandfather and grandmother, William and Sarah Rust, in 1925, built and operated the Kaibab Lodge  (VT Ranch) 18 miles from the North Rim of the spectacular Grand Canyon. The Rust family were instrumental in establishing environmental tourism before the word was in common use.  The Lodge continues today.  In 2025 the amazing lodge on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was destroyed by fire.  Gratefully, Kaibab Lodge continues – the beautiful original rock fire place continues.  My mother and brother-in-law sang and entertained guests every evening.  Family members were excellent story tellers – stretching a good story — “where the deer come to see the tourists,” other home spun tales.  The Rust family was forced to sell the Lodge due to the economic collapse in 1929.

Kaibab Lodge, Route 267, North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Airzona
“Where the deer come to see the people.”
William and Sarah Rust; Woodruff and Isabelle Luke Rust – others

Spirit Place * Spirit Planet refers both to my ancestors love of the land and Native American peoples who resided in the region, past centuries and at present.  Mount Tukuhnikivatz is a triangle-shaped sacred mountain in the region. Maida found the mountain originally on a map in a restaurant.  Locals claim that the beautiful mountain is known as the place  at “end time” where people will gather, the place where the “Sun last sets” in the La Sal Mountains in Utah.

Sunny and Hardy Redd made our 5 week residency possible by providing use of their winter home and access to a 15 passenger van for five weeks to travel, usually 2 to 3 hours distance, to four select earth sites. Joe Pachak, guide, assisted Belle and Maida by driving off road with us to identify four sites deemed diverse enough for our film project.  Joe Pachak was so important in helping us to select four locations with diverse history and physical properties for our planned residency to create a film.  We honor and recognize the importance of these lands to Anasazi (ancestral Puebloan), Navajo Nation, Zuni, Hopi, and Ute and the Great Gallery wall, Barrier Canyon Style of the Desert Archaic culture.

Sadly, the scale of the Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet *Tukuhnikivatz made additional performances of the final stage work difficult….really impossible.  Artists and others were brought together for this special statement about life and the earth.  Brent Michael Davids, Mohican Nation, composed and directed the music with his Blue Butterfly group from various places in the USA.  Will Goins, PhD student at GWU,  Cherokee Nation, dancer, singer, drummer was important – lived in Oklahoma.  The immense contribution of earth photography by Bruck Hucko,  Moab, Utah, is beyond measure.  We felt the full production and film were complete. We were honored to have 2500 people attend the Lincoln Center Out of Doors performance.  Maida Rust Withers

The work was conceived, choreographed and directed by Maida Withers.  Brent Michael Davids, Mohican Nation, composed and directed the music with his Blue Butterfly Group musicians and Will Goins, singer, Cherokee.  Bruce Hucko, brilliant Earth photographer,  Verabel Call Cluff and James Byrne, filmmakers are responsible for the landsite projections throughout the production, Turker Ozdogon and GW MFA ceramic students designed/created masks for “characters” in the performance.  Tom Fiocchi fabricated  “moving buttes” and stilts for “night figures,” many others.

Videos and Films Produced related to Tukuhnikivatz projected video:

Videos related to Tukuhnikivatz projected video:
TUK (Tukuhnikivatz (FILM 18:04) Ludovik Jolivet, Editor https://vimeo.com/31371574 Tukuhnikivatz (FILM 39:58) Jamille Wallick, Editor https://vimeo.com/468693246
Tukuhnikivatz (FILM Story 12:46) Excerpts of Installation – Stephani Altomare, Editor https://vimeo.com/464010414/
TUK (Tukuhnikivatz) Tailer (00:52) https://vimeo.com/127958843/

Videos/films not specifically related to the stage work, but shot during the Utah Residency:

TUK l (FILM Short):  Maida/Tim/Christy on roadside rocks, location: Bears Ears, Utah.(02:29) https://vimeo.com/99726485/  Maida Withers, editor
Utah/Tuk:   Maida talk/visuals (03:03) https://sample_tuk_aurora_icebergs_collision_course (13:50)
Maida narrates, https://vimeo.com/561830993/(correct number, yes)

Sources:

https://maidadance.com/works/utah-spirit-place-spirit-planet-tukuhnikivatz/
https://vimeo.com/7983497

https://vimeo.com/46869324

What the press is saying

"Utah * Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz, a work drawn from the ancient art of American Indians and the rugged wilderness of Utah.
Ms. Withers' piece was ambitious and awesomely complex, filling the stage of the Damrosch Park bandshell with layer upon layer of huge video images and photographs projected on rocklike sculptures. Live bodies moved among them, both dancers and ceremonial figures. ...Evoked a mid-world between dreams and everyday reality."
Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times Jennifer Dunning - New York Times

"Maida Withers depicts primitive terrain. ...The dancers are in constant action, pushing the boundaries of pure physical dance." Gia Kourlias- Time Out New York

"What an accomplishment! On behalf of Lincoln Center, my sincere thanks and congratulations o a spectacular achievement in your creation and presentation of Tukuhnikivatz here at our festival. Our primary sponsor attended this performance, and was delighted with it, as were the 2500 other audience members. The blending of the filmed images and dancers and the lights and actual dancers was especially breathtaking, according to those who witnessed the work." LETTER: Lincoln Center, Jenneth Webster, Producer

"Please congratulate your dancers on their impressive work, your visual artists on the loveliness they made with slides and photos, and Brent Michael Davids on a beautiful score. To create something so extensive, so technically demanding and so emotionally deep is an extraordinary accomplishment. Bless you for trying and for succeeding so very well. I hope that we can work together again soon." Jenneth Webster, Producer, Lincoln Center Out of Doors.
LETTER: Lincoln Center, Jenneth Webster, Producer

"As things began to roll, Withers decided she wanted to discover her own history. And where else could she turn? Back to Utah, of course. Rocks, cliff art, shadows and historical events brought images to Withers' mind." Scott Iwasaki - Deseret News

Scott Iwasaki -

"A multimedia work by Maida Withers inspired by Native American legend and the Utah landscape. Set to music by Brent Michael Davids, and performed by the Dance Construction Company, the work premieres August 20 in Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center." New York Fashion

"The artists she assembled have been drawn to the power of the landscape Miss Withers is evoking... In the work's most riveting moment, these shapes are lit from behind, become luminous, and reveal figures moving in archetypal poses." Jean Battey Lewis- The Washington Times

Valerie Gladstone- The Weekly Newspaper of New York

Thank you for the more intimate close up view--the works are beautifully shot and compiled--the use of sound, color, shadow and shape was so powerful. Watching the pieces, I found myself moving through Thai shadow puppets, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Greek vase painting, underwater...and insects! Strange ghosts in the machine. And the music--instruments, voice and use of breath--were unique and so aligned. It is so hard to get close to the sensory experience of watching dance and I thought this worked well, thank you for sharing Isabel Swift, personal letter 11_1_2021

"The Four Corner's Spirit Place / Spirit Planet was of particular interest to me because my father was a physician to the Navajo and Ute at Shiprock, NM, and Chimney Rock, Co, around 1910. I visited the location to experience somewhat this venue a few years ago for I have, besides my memory of him, a number of Indian artifacts he left after his death when I was a grraduate Student at GW in the Late '30s. Prof. Withers' work and her supporters' as well as your production moved me greatly....." Lawson M. McKenzie, NYC *attended Lincoln Center performance