MaidaWithers
Current Projects
A Choreographer's Life
Fare Well
Thresholds Crossed
Russian Tour
Touring and Performances
Past Works
Aurora/2001
Site Works
Media/Technology
Int'l Improv Fest
Press/Reviews
THRESHOLDS CROSSED (Photos) (Video)
DANCE / NEW MUSIC / VIDEO
PERFORMANCES IN RUSSIA - 2007 Thursday, April 26 at 8pm Monday, April 30 at 8pm "ambitious work" |
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RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN DANCERS
Thresholds Crossed is an evening-length multi media dance work,
a kinetic fusion of East and West, that fearlessly explores the events,
ideology and humanistic issues that link the US with the former Soviet
Union and contemporary Russia. A bold and ground breaking work,
Thresholds Crossed celebrates the bond between Russia and America,
world super powers.
Russian and American dancers share the stage in a highly charged interactive
performance about our shared experiences with love of country, violence
of war, sorrow for loss, and passion for life. Thresholds Crossed
was created in the capital cities of Moscow (2005) and in Washington,
DC (2006). Maida Withers and the Company have toured and been engaged
in many projects in Russia since 1997 (see listing of projects below).
Thresholds Crossed is currently planning a tour to the Russian cities of Arkhangelsk, Moscow, and Krasnoyarsk, in April/May 2007.
With this international project, the DC-based Dance Construction Company celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Pioneering
choreographer, Maida Withers, is known locally and internationally for
her innovative choreography, her intensity as a dancer, and as a master
teacher. She has created over 75 works for stage, site, and video. She
has been called the “iconoclast of Washington dance.” Maida
Withers and Company recently received the 2005 Washington, DC. Mayor’s
Arts Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline. Maida and the Company
tour extensively internationally, over seventeen tours worldwide, including
Russia, France, Poland, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Finland,
Norway, China, Hong Kong, Korea, others.
Two Great Monuments for Two Great Nations
Statue of Liberty (1886) - Liberty Island
New York Harbor
Motherland is Calling (1967)- Mamayev Hill Volgograd (former
Stalingrad)
Press Reviews, Thresholds Crossed, April 2006, Washington, DC
- ...in its 30th year, a remarkable achievement for the rather low-profile group that has fearlessly tackled political and societal issues, incorporated laser and computer technology and brought modern dance to underserved corners of the world." Sarah Kaufman, The Washington Post.
- Thresholds Crossed ...She (Maida) remains a force of nature, a strong presence with her powerful body and white hair flying. The ambitious work is the culmination of decades Miss Withers has spent creating conceptual works that tussle with large ideas and themes, often drawing on collaborations that reach across international boundaries. Jean Battey Lewis, Washington Times
- ... sounds of relentlessly discomfort and underwear clad dancers repeatedly collapsing - these were moments that seared the senses during the first half of "Thresholds Crossed," a four-part fusion of movement, music, and visual imagery directed by Maida Withers. Kate Mattingly, The Washington Post
Thresholds Crossed, a four-part dance theatre work, features the original music by award winning electronic composer/musician, Steven Hilmy (Washington, DC), and Audrey Chen's original vocals and cello (Baltimore). The new music score, created in sonic blocks and performed live to heighten the interactive aspect, references Russian Civil War and patriotic songs as well as contemporary pop and classical music.
The performance includes a captivating video by filmmaker, Linda Lewett (New York City) that is projected as a full backdrop on the stage. The visual installation features footage shot on Solovki Islands, Russia; animated propaganda poster art; memorials to war in Russia and America; historical quotations; colorful graffiti art, and images from pop culture in Russia and America today.
The drama of the work is enhanced by the light design of William DeMull (North Carolina). Thresholds Crossed includes dancers Dan Joyce, Anthony Gongora, Rob Bettmann, Mare Hieronimus, Megan Thompson, and Maida Withers (USA), and Nikolai Schetnev, Anastasia Oleynik, Konstantin Grouss, Ekaterina Zharinova (Russia); Vitalii Sozoniuk (Ukraine).
Thresholds Crossed is made possible by the establishment of contemporary dance in Russia following perestroika in 1991 and is a direct result of eleven tours and residencies by Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company in Russia since 1997. Important for the development of Thresholds Crossed was the Company’s performance for the 5th OPEN LOOK International Festival during the 300th anniversary celebration of the founding of St. Petersburg in 2003, the performance residency in Solovki Islands for Art Angar "Solosphere" Festival, the site of the first Soviet Era gulag in 2004, the creation of LENIN for the Lenin Museum in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia in 2005, and the three-week choreographic residency co-sponsored by TSEH in Moscow in the summer of 2005. Thresholds Crossed has been generously supported by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, by the Ford Foundation in Russia, TSEH, Dallas Morse Coors Foundation, the DC Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, The Dance Construction Company, Equity Focus Group, Alpina Springs, among others.
Photos below: Rehearsal and performance -
April 2006
Photos below: American dancers in production - February 2006; Russian dancers - April 2006.
Photos below: Maida Withers and Anthony Gongora, Solovki Islands,
Art Angar Center, July 2004
Photos below: Russian/American Exchange, Moscow, Russia, July 2005 (photos by Eric Withers).
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Touring and residencies in Russia by Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company:
Tour of Thresholds Crossed to Arkhangelsk, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Russia in April/May 2007 (TBA).
International 3rd annual conference of Mikhail Prokohrov Foundation, Cultural Initiatives Foundation of Norilsk, NE, Russia, November 2-6, 2006. Maida Withers, Anastasia Oleynik, and Constantin Grouss present excerpts from Thresholds Crossed and engage in conference discussion on cultural issues.
Thresholds Crossed audition and rehearsal
for Part I in Moscow, Russia, April 3-24, 2005. •Rehearsal
for three weeks with seven Russian, Ukrainian, and four US dancers
•Informal presentation of Thresholds Crossed Part
I for TSEH International Summer School
•Maida Withers teach improvisation for TSEH International Summer
School.
“Isadora” International Festival of Dance in Krasnoyarsk,
Serbia, Russia (April 10-17, 2005)
• Maida Withers performs Shocked and Odd – Live Art II
with Nikolai Schetnev, Russia, and Jack Gallagher, American living in
The Netherlands.
• Create site-specific performance for the Lenin Museum with thirteen
Russian dancers.
• Teach workshops in improvisation, technique, and dance and technology
Report: http://www.maidadance.com/current_projects.html
ArtAngar “Solosphere” Project in Solovki Islands, Russia
(July 17- 24, 2004)
• Create and perform five site-specific events with the Dance Construction
Company artists (dance, music, film) in collaboration with Russian and Finnish
dance companies. Important for this project was the opportunity to explore the
15th Century Solovetsky Monastery, cathedrals and monastic living quarters and
chapels that housed the gulag, the first such experiment established in Solovki,
Russia.
• Linda Lewett, filmmaker and the DCCo artists (dance and music)
shoot footage for an art video in various locations on the islands.
Report: http://www.maidadance.com/current_projects.html
TOUCH 3 International Dance Festival in Arkhangelsk, Russia (July 12-16
2004)
• Performed trio Thresholds Crossed Part II.
• Created site specific work with Russian, American and Finnish dancers
(downtown street in the location of Café Merci)
5th OPEN LOOK International Dance Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia
(July 1-10, 2003)
• Perform Dance of the Auroras – Fire in the Sky.
Performance included collaborators, Tania Fraga, cyber world artists from
Brazil; original music by Oystein Sevag and the Global House Band, Norway;
Dance Construction Company dancers; Sasha Kukin, Russia, Iwona Olszowska,
Poland; Part II section performed by Kannon Dance Company of St. Petersburg;
• Maida Withers was in residence for two weeks in St. Petersburg
in March 2003 to reconstruct Part II of Dance of the Auroras
on the Kannon Dance Company;
• Company taught four workshops daily.
Report: http://www.maidadance.com/current_projects.html
5th OPEN LOOK Festival, Touch2 Festival, Touch3 Festival, and ArtAngar
Festival
• During the festivals Maida Withers and Linda Lewett, filmmaker, interviewed
over sixty Russian dancers, administrators, dance patrons about views on life
and dance in Russia and America. A thirty-minute documentary video, Under the
Radar, is in progress.
TOUCH 2 International Dance Festival in Arkhangelsk, Russia (July 11-15,
2003)
• Perform Dance of the Auroras – Fire in the Sky
(see description above)
• Company taught two workshops daily.
Kannon Dance School and Company in St. Petersburg, Russia (June 2000)
• Maida Withers created Part III of Dance of the Auroras –
Fire in the Sky with Iwona Olszowska, dancer from Poland, and Sasha
Kukin, dancer from Russia, and Vincent Cacalano, USA/Netherlands, during
a residency sponsored by Kannon Dance. Daily teaching for the school and
community was part of the exchange agreement.
Conference on Dance, Volgograd Centre for Dance, Volgograd, Russia
(1997)
•Maida Withers deliver paper on her large-scale multimedia
performance, Utah * Tukuhnikivatz.