• Choreographer, director, dancer, teacher, videographer

Maida Withers' love of risk and the unknown has led her and us through dozens of daring choreographic expeditions over the past decade...less interested in charming spectators than in prodding them into unexpected modes of perception, she's always preferred to take a grand leap into the abyss than an easy swim across the pool.
Alan Michael Kriegsman, The Washington Post.

Maida Withers, a powerful and commanding performer, has created over 50 dances of breadth and vision. Her works reveal an ongoing interest in technology and breaking of the boundaries of the status quo. Aurora/2001 is the latest in a series of large-scale projects that she continues to initiate and direct forming unique collaborations with visual and performing artists, scientists, anthropologists, and others. Withers and The Dance Construction Company tour extensively internationally and engage in various projects with international artists (see Dance Construction Company for international tours).  Maida Withers, Columbian Professor (Distinguished Professor), is recognized as a master teacher.

Maida was a part of the 60’s dance "revolution" in America that led to the establishment of what became known as "post-modernism." Inspired by Anna Halprin, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Alwin Nikolais, and Mary Wigman, from Germany, Withers soon established her own individual style. Improvisation became a means for experimentation before and during performances and encouraged new ways of moving and fresh ways of thinking regarding collective creativity.

Awards received by Maida Withers include: 2001 Pola Nirenska Award for Contribution in the Arts; Columbian Professorship Award (Distinguished Professorship); United States Information Service (Russia, Venezuela, Brazil, Japan), the National Endowment for the Arts: Choreographer's Fellowship, Inter-Arts; Visual Arts in Performing Arts; DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; Virginia Commission for the Arts; Dilthey Fellowship for Collaboration; GW Faculty Research Awards; Washington Area Studies Grant for Cultural Preservation and Archiving; Fulbright Travel Award to Taiwan; Kansai University Exchange to Japan; Washingtonian Magazine Award to Outstanding Women; and others (see support and acknowledgment)..

Maida has received national and international awards for her dance videos. DC Rosebud Film Festival, 1992; Women in Film Festival, Kennedy Center, 1991; IMZ Dance Screen, Frankfurt, Germany, 1992; State of the Art: documentary received national recognition for innovative local cable programming; Utah * Tukuhnikivatz video art installation: Environmental Film Festival of Washington, DC, 1997. SandS CycleS, a landsite video, toured with Withers extensively, internationally. Withers narrated Dance, Dance, Dance, a ten-part series for NBC-TV, broadcast in five US cities, 1978.