Award-winning professor reflects on her art
On Jan. 9 at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, GW Professor Maida Withers’ work received prestigious recognition and gave opportunity for reflection.
Withers accepted the D.C. Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline on behalf of her company, the Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, founded in 1974.
The Award comes at an appropriate time for reflection of Withers’ past accomplishments and artistic developments, and is fitting for Withers’ fortieth anniversary of teaching at GW.
Maida Withers was honored as an engaging and innovative experimental performer, holding a unique position in the international and DC art community. She holds a position as a GW dance professor and graduate program director.
Withers’ work is very distinct and often performance-based, and consists of large scale and collaborative projects. Withers was a self-proclaimed participant in the modern dance revolution, and in the generation of transition from the modern to post-modern artistic movement. Experimental dance emerged, moving away from classical performances to a more natural and organic nature.
Withers embraced this growing movement, and with her collaborative tendencies worked with other artists, experimental mediums and technology. Her early work was intensely political, outrageous and risqué; Withers became known for her blatant and eccentric performances.
In addition to her unique style, Withers also maintains direct connections with the artistic community and teaching, according to her company’s website. She has founded the DC International Dance Improvisation Plus+ Festival, among others, is on the founding board of directors of Washington Project for the Arts, and teaches international dance workshops.
She has received numerous recognitions, including the Pola Nirenska Life-Time Artistic Achievement Award presented by The Washington Performing Arts Society.
Withers explained the evolutionary nature of her work and “the long germination period of research” involved in each piece.
“I don’t decide to make works, the work itself comes after… sometimes taking years to emerge” she said.
Her process is developmental, she says, and heightens the translation of an artistic work. She is strongly focused on her collaboration, and cites the importance of their scientific, artistic and technological incorporations.
Collaborators add more than logistics in the completion of a project – they “must share in a vision, it requires a sense of openness.”
“You don’t want a submissive collaborator” Withers said. As such, for both Withers and collaborators the process “requires faith, you have to be fearless and delve into unknown territory.”
Withers has done just that, as indicated in her past and critically acclaimed works, such as her latest project, Aurora/2001: Dance of the Auroras. Incorporating a multi-media cyber world courtesy of Brazilian Tania Fraga and music from Norwegian Oystein Sevag, Aurora /2001 was an international mix of artistic mediums.
Her relationships and collaborations with other artists brings Withers across the world and spans over years. In Aurora/2001 Withers first went to Finland and later to Norway in search of composers who “knew the methodology and had the personal experience [of auroras].”
Later, another music producer suggested Oystein Sevag, a Norweigan composer with experimental tendencies as an ideal contributor. Withers also began working with Tania Fraga, a visitor to GW for computer science research, to incorporate a multi-medium cyber world. Together, and with the aid of a wireless mouse, they made the almost ethereal northern lights an interactive experience with the dancers.
As many of Withers’ experimental works require large undertakings, on-site locations, and other artists, spontaneous movement is largely incorporated.
“You get to a setting and start to notice the noise, traffic, and light and begin to make the work specific to the space. It only happens once. It’s authentic and takes more risk.”
“It incorporates skills and personality to see what happens- it creates a spontaneous discovery.”
Withers’ emphasis on improvisations is illustrative of her inclination towards the experimental and organic; traits that have made her a unique artist in the DC art community.
“There is not too much competition,” Withers jokes, “there aren’t too many interested in extreme and experimental performance.”
Though there is a lack of interest in actually performing experimental dance in DC, there is no lack of audience eager to watch. Countless rave reviews from The Washington Post and The New York Times, to name a few, have hailed Withers and her company as a commanding and premier Washingtonian artist.
Alan M. Kriegsman of The Washington Post writes,“ Picture the Washington dance scene without Maida Withers…how much duller, drier, and shorter on surprise the last decade would have been… [she is] a prime evangelist of the novel and strange byways of dance…”
In light of her awards and praise, Withers is grateful for her audiences and supporters.
Her “fantastic, exposed, political and well-educated” audiences and “vibrant artistic community have been a source of pleasure,” Withers reflects. She extends particular thanks to the African American art community in DC. “I am so grateful to that community for their good relationship and artistic culture.”
Withers also thanked the recognition when receiving The D.C. Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline. “I hope this award serves as a reminder of the importance of dance as an art form,” Withers said.
Maida Withers’ recent accomplishment and upcoming events are illustrative of the importance of art at GW and in the local community. She will be showcasing the development of her past work in a Retrospective, to be held beginning April 21 at the Dimock Gallery in Lisner Auditorium. More information is available at www.maidadance.com.
Withers elaborates and says that awards of this nature “allows for reflection and appreciation of those who have devoted their living to expression.”
This reflection can also be extended in supporting dance for building an artistic future.
“If only institutional art is supported, only the past is supported. Where is the room for experimentation and new directions?”
Withers concludes that such considerations are particularly important in a time of conflict over “what art is, and what it should be.”
She reminds, “There is a place for art at GW. It is there, has been and will be.”
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