The Nikolais legacy - Alwin Nikolais, choreograher and dancer - repertoire to be presented by Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

Dance Magazine, Sept, 2003 by Murray Louis

Alwin Nikolais passed away in 1993. His contributions to dance were considerable: the stage works, the school in New York City, and his creative pedagogy and aesthetic philosophy. His archives included television and films, a large collection of photographs and press, all his notes and writings, his sound scores, his innovations in lighting--all his accomplishments had to he preserved. As his heir, and head of the Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance, that was my responsibility. To accomplish this I realized that I had to gradually phase out my own career, and when a UPS truck slammed into me in 1998, I found my retirement inevitable. I began to prioritize the process of preserving the legacy.

My first divestment was the closing of the school and disbanding of the company. When Ohio University's Alden Library Archives and Special Collections, under the guidance of Judith Connick, asked if it could house the archives, I was relieved, I decided that my first task, before I forgot everything, was to record the philosophy and pedagogy of the technique. For years I had labored over a manual that would include all of this. Finally, after eight more months, I finished the book that Routledge Press will publish in 2004, Nikolais/Louis Technique: The Unique Gesture.

But concert repertoire is meant to be a living thing. The fact that all Nik's works were filmed and videotaped meant nothing in terms of perpetuating the excitement of a live performance. Watching six-inch-tail figures on a TV screen lends little to the aesthetics and kinetics of a dance. But to present live performances meant having a company and resources. The prospect was daunting. I was willing to form a new company, but the training and fund-raising necessary to do so, as well as finding an administrative staff, a technical crew, a manager, a booking agent, and on and on, was too much. If I undertook all this at my advanced age, would I ever live to see nay next birthday?

I can't remember exactly when the idea of associating with Shirley Ride and Joan Woodbury and their company came to mind. I think it was during one of my 4:00 A.M. talks with myself.

Nik had gone to Salt Lake City for six summers during the 1960s, and bad evolved much of the basis for his aesthetics and vocabulary on Joan and Shirley and their workshops. There he defined a vocabulary that would take dance a step away from the vague, often careless and indulgent, limitations the ego presented and instead relate it to its elements of space, shape, time, and motion. He distinguished dance from general movement by identifying the nature of its interior motion.

Joan and Shirley had broad backgrounds in modern dance, Joan with the University of Wisconsin and Margaret H'Doubler and Elizabeth Hayes, and Shirley with Louis Horst and the Bennington artists of Graham, Humphrey, and Weidman. Their combined exposures were formidable. Besides, I had known them for years and we were great buddies.

When I suggested the plan to involve their company and organization, it was an immediate go. I settled on seven pieces that had never been presented together, a program that would contrast and balance Nik's work. That was something he could never do since constantly presenting premieres always threw the balance of a program into favoring each new piece. The seven are: Noumenon, Mobilus, Tensile Involvement, "Lythic" from Prism, Mechanical Organ, "Finale" from Liturgies, Crucible, and Blank on Blank.

We sought and received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mellon, Harkness, and (Utah-based) Eckles Foundations, as well as from private sources. Douglas Sonntag of the NEA was particularly encouraging since that organization's dance program held legacy as a high priority and understood this unique need for this method.

The plan is to mount the works with the original sets, costumes, and lighting in Salt Lake City, perform them there September 24 27, and make a U.S. tour (see Calendar, page 53) ending at The Joyce Theater in New York for a week in October. Through Nik's contacts in Europe, we arranged a four-week tour there beginning with Paris in February 2004. All of tiffs is under my direction, with Alberto (Tito) del Saz, and performed by the Ririe-Woodbury Company.

The long-range plan is to restage a new program annually for four weeks, while the Ririe-Woodbury Company continues with its own mission and legacy the rest of the year.

Throughout this preparation, I would normally rely on two stalwart good friends who had worked with Nik and me for many years: Frank Garcia, designer, costumer, archivist, and long-trusted companion, who died suddenly this year, and Tito del Saz, who became co-director of the Nikolais/Louis Foundation this year, and without whom I would never have begun this project. He continues to lend his skill, sensitivity, and dedication to the project.

For more information: Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance, 121 West 20 St. #2C, New York, NY 10011; fax 212.463.8839, nik-murray@mindspring.com; or Judith Connick, Special Collections Librarian, Alden Library, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701; connick@ohio.edu; 740.597.1771.