Lecture demonstration

1981

Trainees of CNDC Angers

Head of the CNDC at Angers from 1978 to 1981, Alwin Nikolais made his trainee dancers part of experimental research, in a laboratory, far from the brilliance of the stage. Nonetheless, the Angers Town Council became very involved in this project and insisted that the local population discover this work. Conferences featuring demonstrations were to satsify this curiosity. Through them we can see how the French trainee dancers found the tools and building blocks for their own movement in the teaching of the American master. When it came to the involvement of most of the great American choreographers, what was sought was expertise in technique, which was viewed as not being of a high enough standard in France. With Alwin Nikolais, however, technique only made sense as part of a philosophical vision, which turns its back on the expression of the self.

Instead, this is replaced by an abstract relationship with the world whereby the body responds to principals of shape and the production of space and time, and attention to motion (a flow of interior movement loaded with intention). Setting out these parameters explicitly and making infinite combinations from them convinced the young French artists that their gestures were being clarified and emancipated.

Gérard Mayen

Credits

enregistré le 13 février 1981 dans les studios du CNDC boulevard Henri-Arnaud

danseurs-stagiaires du CNDC Christian Bourigault, Isabelle Destoop, Yves Le Guen, Myriam Hervé-Gill, Santha Leng

production CNDC Angers

Alwin Nikolaïs was born in 1910 in Southington, Connecticut. He studied piano at an early age and began his performing career as an organist accompanying silent films. As a young artist he gained skills in scenic design, acting, puppetry and music composition. It was after attending a performance by the illustrious German dancer Mary Wigman that he was inspired to study dance. He received his early dance training at Bennington College from the great figures of the modern dance world: Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Louis Horst, and others. In 1940, in collaboration with Truda Kaschmann, his first modern dance teacher Mr. Nikolais received a commission to create « Eight Column Line », his first ballet.  In 1948, Mr. Nikolais was appointed director of the Henry Street Playhouse, where he formed the Playhouse Dance Company, later renamed and known as the Nikolais Dance Theatre. It was at Henry Street that Mr. Nikolais began to develop his own world of abstract dance theatre, portraying man as part of a total environment. His unique choreographic works placed him in a realm previously untouched by other choreographers. Mr. Nikolais redefined dance, as “the art of motion which, left on its own merits, becomes the message as well as the medium.“

While developing his choreography, Mr. Nikolais' lifelong interest in music led him to create his own scores. Choreographer, composer, scenic and costume designer, has blended his many talents into a single aesthetic force. In a career that has spanned five decades, he has left his imprint on every theatrical medium, from Broadway to television. Whenever there is something new, his hand is evident. His lighting wonders, his sound scores, his choreography, and his costumes have influenced the contemporary stage and a generation of choreographers. Mr. Nikolais is the creator of the internationally acclaimed Nikolais Dance Theater and the genius responsible for dozens of visual masterpieces. As a uniquely original exponent of American contemporary dance he toured throughout Europe and subsequent tours to South America and the Far East. Mr. Nikolais is renowned as a master teacher, and his pedagogy is taught in schools and universities throughout the world. He passed away May 8, 1993 and is buried in Pere La Chaisse cemetery in Paris.

Source: Nikolais/Louis Foundation for dance Inc.

More information: nikolaislouis.org