Maida Withers (B.A. Brigham Young University, M.S. University of Utah) Professor of Dance at GW, is the Artistic Director and founder of Maida Withers and The Dance Construction Company, a not-for-profit arts organization created in 1974 to produce original dance works for stage, sites and video in a collaborative process with visual and performing artists. Withers has created over 35 dance works, many of which are full-evening works. A native of Utah, Withers and The Dance Construction Company have toured throughout the US, and internationally to Brazil (Earth Summit '92), Mexico, Germany, Korea, Japan, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, France, Venezuela, and other venues. Video works by Withers have been shown in Germany at IMZ, the Women in Film series at the Kennedy Center, the DC International Film Festival and elsewhere. Withers has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Choreographers Fellowship, NEA Interarts, NEA Visual Arts in Performing Arts, DC and Virginia Commissions for the Arts, Dilthey Fellowship, GW Faculty Research Award, Washington Area Studies Grant for Cultural Preservation and Archiving, Fulbright Travel Award to Taiwan, Kansai University Exchange to Japan and in 1999 received the distinguished Columbia Professorship award.