Concerts at the Capitol Theatre on Friday and Saturday, March 11 and 12, hold something special for Utah dance lovers of whatever persuasion - the appearance of Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance from New York City.
"Of whatever persuasion," because dance in all its manifestations has been touched by the uniquely theatrical Nikolais mystique during the past 50 years - by a kaleidoscope of multimedia excitement, cinematic drama, spectacular lighting and costuming, challenging, intense movement and intriguing electronic scores - which is best characterized as "total dance theater."Though he studied with them as a young man, during the '40s Alwin Nikolais parted company with the Graham-Humphrey philosophy of dance as psychological drama. He found his roots in the same vein as Rudolf von Laban, Mary Wigman and Hanya Holm and struck out on a more abstract, expressionist trail, which his longtime collaborator Murray Louis considers parallel but independent.
"Hanya Holm instilled in him her integrity for the art, and he became her assistant," said Louis. "He liked to say that `dance is motion, not emotion.'
"He has had a tremendous impact on video, television and Broadway, in dance made visual as well as kinetic. His developing ideal of dance as pure movement rather than a body language has been concurrent with many other people's evolutions - such diverse choreographers as George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham and Erick Hawkins. Nik's is the dance of the 21st century."
To judge for yourself, come to the Capitol Theatre for one of the concerts (or both - the programs are different) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale at the Capitol Theatre box office at $15, $20 and $25, and at Albertsons ArtTix outlets; for credit sales or information, call 355-ARTS. A party will follow the opening night concert, at the Utah One Center; tickets, a $25 donation, will be available at the performance.
A couple of free events will precede the concerts, both in the Marriott Center for Dance at the University of Utah. At 7 p.m. Monday, March 7, Joan Woodbury will lecture and show film on Nikolais and Louis. And at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 10, Louis and company members will give a lecture/demonstration. (Insider hint: Louis will show part of the men's quintet from "Horizons," a new piece he is working on.)
Nikolais had strong ties to Utah, and influence on Joan Woodbury and Shirley Ririe, as a teacher here under Rockefeller grants during the '60s, and subsequently when the women studied further in his studios and taught for him in New York and France.
The company's appearance here is in celebration of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company's 30th season, with co-sponsorship by the Council of Dee Fellows and the George S. and Dolores Dore' Eccles Foundation.
Murray Louis is world-renowned as an elegant, witty and insightful choreographer, creator of more than 100 dances for his own and other renowned modern dance and ballet companies.
The Manhattan-born dancer returned to New York following World War II and gravitated to the Henry Street Playhouse, where Nikolais had founded a school. For 20 years he was a solo artist with the Nikolais Dance Theatre. In 1953 he founded his own Murray Louis Dance Company, which became a major force in the world of dance. He has danced on five continents and in every state in the U.S. He holds the grand medal of the City of Paris, among many other honors.
In 1989 the two companies merged, as Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance. They tour some 35 weeks a year, in America and abroad, with special popularity in France. The 10-member company has received many awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and other foundations.
Before his death last May, after five decades in the forefront of modern dance, Nikolais had garnered such impressive accolades as the National Medal of the Arts and Kennedy Center Honors, both in 1987. He was also a knight of the French Legion of Honor, and received the grand medal of the City of Paris.
Louis has worked extensively in television. A culminating event was the award-winning documentary "Nik and Murray," shown on public television's American Masters series, also in 1987.
The loss of Nik, his companion for 45 years, has been personal as well as artistic, said Louis. "I have kept extraordinarily busy, and while I go through phases like anyone who has had a tragic loss, I can cope with it.
"Nik is buried in Paris, in company with so many great artists, in the famous Pere Lachaise Cemetery - only a few niches away from Isadora Duncan. But in a sense I never really buried him, he's with me all the time, I talk to him, we still laugh at dinner."
Louis has devoted himself to "fulfilling my commitment of homages to Nik, throughout the world. And Salt Lake City was always part of his family," he said via telephone from his home in New York City.
"During this year I have also put out a CD of his music, and assembled and edited three volumes of his work on technique of movement, translated into French.
"After our touring this season, we will spend April and May videotaping in broadcast quality six hours of his repertory, to capture his theatrical magic. Money has come from a variety of people; I am overcome at how many individuals, public agencies and foundations are willing to fund this project."
There is no separation in technique between Louis and Nik, he said, "and we have produced artists like Joan and Shirley who found their own identity."
The school continues, transplanted from Greenwich Village to the SoHo area of Manhattan, where there is 5,000 square feet of space, with a new floor. "We have three seasons a year in New York, in our own Kaye Theatre, named for Danny Kaye and his wife Sylvia Fine, who financed it," said Louis.
Rather than the hundreds of students, including children, who came to the Henry Street Playhouse, at present Louis teaches only 25. "They come every day, they are adults, half of them from abroad. They are wonderfully serious, people oriented toward performing, creating and teaching," he said.
In Salt Lake City on Friday night the company will dance "Crucible," a mixed-media work full of Nikolais effects and mental images, which suggests the cauldron that produces life, said Louis.
" `Mechanical Organ' is a pure dance piece of various moods and qualities. `Tensile Involvement' is a company signature piece of sorts, first danced in 1953, which paints the stage with elastic lines and creates total theater. We performed this at Kennedy Center when Nik received his honors."
The program concludes with Louis' "Four Brubeck Pieces." "For many years I toured with Brubeck, and these are spirited, exuberant technique pieces," he said.
"Saturday's program will begin with my "Stravinsky,' created for the Hamburg Ballet to observe the 100th anniversary of Stravinsky's birth. It's a montage of the various genres for which Stravinsky composed - orchestra, circus, opera, mythology, ballet.
" `Blank on Blank' by Nik represents the nihilistic approach to life, a colorless existence, but it's done with wonderfully pure, strong white light. `Alone' is a solo I created in tribute to Nik, and first danced during a week's engagement at the Paris Opera, as the first act of `Schema,' a full evening piece. Completing the program is `Tent,' a full-out multimedia piece by Nik, and a repeat of `Tensile Involvement.' "