Picture the Washington dance scene without
Maida Withers -- how much duller, drier, and shorter on surprise the last
decade would have been. Then, as today, she was our prime evangelist of
the novel and strange byways of dance, a tireless advocate of causes, aesthetic
and otherwise, and a human juggernaut in the force of her wit, stamina,
and intelligence.
—Alan M. Kriegsman, The Washington Post
Maida Withers' Dance Construction Company is a not-for-profit
arts organization established in 1974 in Washington, D.C. to create and
produce original dance and performance works for stage and video and for
site-specific projects in a collaborative process with visual and performing
arts. The Company is acclaimed for its innovation and ingenuity, its interest
in multimedia, technology and experimental approaches in the creation process.
Maida Withers, founder and artistic director, has created
a significant body of work for the company, over 50 dances. Every 4 or
5 years, Withers and company initiate and produce an epochal dance-theatre
work, involving technology, that explores issues on the cusp edge of our
global society such as:
Stall—A
performance dialogue with a computer animated rotating loudspeaker set.
Laser
Dance—Where dancers, wearing protective goggles, interact with argon
laser beams affecting both the sound and three dimensional laser designs
above the stage and the audience.
Sands
Cycles—A video of Withers at White Sands, New Mexico and Coral Dunes,
Utah is part of the visual environment for her stage work, In Winds of
Sand, that has been produced in six different countries.
Utah
* Spirit Place * Spirit Planet * Tukuhnikivatz—A futuristic performance
commissioned by the Lincoln Center involving a visual installation video,
and a Native American music ensemble, to probe our consciousness of earth
and spirit.
For the past five years, Withers and the company have
produced and curated the DC International Improvisation Plus Festival,
music/dance performances and workshops, including THIS SPACE OCCUPIED!
throughout the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Seeing JAZZ MOVE, at the Smithsonian
as part of the Seeing JAZZ exhibition, “Raw ART” and “Expect the Unexpected”
at Marvin Theatre. Artists from The Netherlands, Germany, England, Poland,
Russia, Tibet, El Salvador, South Africa, China, New York City, and Washington,
DC have participated. For information regarding the festival visit
the site: http://www. improvfestival.com
Maida Withers and The Dance Construction Company have
been presented in Washington, DC at various theatres including Lisner Auditorium,
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Marvin Theatre, Dance Place, Warner
Theatre, and others. The Washington Performing Arts Society, District Curators,
Dance Place, IN Series, and the Kennedy Center, as well as several regional
theaters or museums, have sponsored and developed partnerships with the
company.
International tours by Withers and the company include:
Brazil (2001 International Art and Technology Conference, Brasilia, Brazil);
(31st Festival de Inverno in Ouro Preto, Casa de Cultura in Rio de Janeiro,
and Dance Brazil '99 at the National Theatre in Brasilia, Brazil, July
1999); Korea (Seoul, and Taejon to celebrate Taejon City 50th anniversary,
1999); Finland, (Side Step Dance Improvisation Festival, January 1998);
Russia (Volgograd International Dance Festival, 1997); Poland (choreographed
“Halda,” for IV International Dance Festival and Conference, 1997); France
(Theatre Dunois in Paris, July 1997); Venezuela (National Theatre, Universidad
Central de Venezuela in Caracas, Nov 1997); Bodies of Influence, and Theatreschool
Festivals, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1996); Seoul, Korea (Munye Theatre,
1993; 13th International Korean Dance Festival, 1994; Jooksan Festival
and the Taejon Dance Festival, 1995); Hong Kong (Academy for Performing
Arts, 1994); China (Guangdong Dance Company, Guangzhou, 1994); Malaysia
(National Institute for the Arts, 1995 and Kuala Lumpur Ballet Company,
1994, 1995); and Japan (Beam Theater collaboration with Marilia, Tokyo,
S.T. Spot, Yokohama, Mariko Dance Theater, Kyoto, 1995, and Kansai University,
Osaka, 1993; Mexico City, Mexico (3 cities), Guatemala City, Guatemala
and Costa Rica, 1988; Mexico City, Mexico, 1988 International Festival
of Dance; others.