Alwin nikolais biography of christopher

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His work explores abstraction in movement, design, and sound. Died May 8, 1993.
Alwin Nikolais was an American choreographer, composer, stage and lighting designer, teacher, and theatrical innovator. In addition to the National Medal of Arts, Alwin Nikolais’ has been honored with the Samuel Scripps American Dance Festival Award, The Capezio Award, Dance Magazine Award, The Tiffany Award, and the American Dance Guild Award.

He characterized his stage presentations as "decentralizing" the dancer, so that humans were only one of the theatrical elements on stage.Alwin Nikolais despised of modern dance's obsession with self. He formed the Playhouse Dance Company, which was later renamed and known as the Nikolais Dance Theatre. The next production to follow PRISM, BEWITCHED, AND CANTOS was an improvisational performance by the dancers that utilized mirrors and the specific use of score and lighting.

The combination of cast, original lighting and music, with modern dance techniques, gained The Nikolais Dance Theatre a world-renowned reputation in the theatrical arts. Nikolais redefined dance, as "the art of motion which, left on its own merits, becomes the message as well as the medium". His was a dance theater of motion, light, sound and color.

This act dealt with opposites: natural vs. Apparent mutilation of the body design by the termination of the costume may disturb the image and when it does, he uses whatever device will serve his aesthetic. In 2000 he was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame.

Nikolais was granted five honorary doctorate degrees, was twice designated a Guggenheim Fellow, and was the recipient of a three-year creativity grant from the Andrew W.

Mellon Foundation. Originally intended simply to extend the dancer's range of balance by providing a larger than normal base, they also add a vertical extension as a great "toe shoe" might; they increase motional dynamics with their added weight in swinging. Hence, his early treatment of the face was concerned not only with varying its uni-statement but also with preventing audiences from experiencing this sensory blocking.

In July 1987, Nik and Murray, a feature-length documentary film about Nikolais and Murray Louis, directed by Christian Blackwood, aired on the PBS series American Masters.

Nikolais was renowned as a master teacher, and his pedagogy is taught in schools and universities throughout the world. Eventually, he became Holm's assistant, teaching at her New York school and at Colorado College during the summers.

The act was performed on four separate occasions and was different each time. With the company's 1968 Paris season at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Nikolais' impact on dance grew internationally. Alwin Nikolais gave the world a new vision of dance and was named the “father of multi-media theater.”

Alwin Nikolais’ vision and philosophy are represented in over 120 choreographic works.

His production MASKS, PROPS, and MOBILES was accredited to have created and popularized modern multimedia theater (Mazo, Joseph), although, some critics rejected Nikolais work as dance, especially when Nikolais transformed the bodies of dancers by covering them in plastic bags that would stretch and change shapes in Noumenon; a section from Masks, Props and Mobiles (1953).