Academic literature on the topic 'Alwin Nikolais'

Este texto, traduzido do original em francês, propõe apontamentos históricos sobre a iluminação cênica em suas relações com o encenador e com o (a) intérprete (ator, dançarino, circense...); ressalta a importância da escuta do (a) intérprete e a do (a) iluminador (a); dá relevo às sensações, induções e sombras suscitadas pela luz. Nomes da história cênica mundial como André Antoine, Bertolt Brecht, Adolphe Appia, Bob Wilson, Alwin Nikolais, entre outros, são trazidos à luz das discussões para apoiar uma reflexão sobre o tema, para a qual contribuem criadores (a) de luz tais como Joël Hourbeigt, Fabiana Piccioli, Philippe Berthomé, Sébastien Michaud, André Diot, na perspectiva de uma luz "concebida para o intérprete e com ele".

Os medicamentos estão presentes no cotidiano de pessoas e sociedades de uma maneira inédita no âmbito da cultura. Do ponto de vista da economia, produção, circulação e consumo cresceram massivamente e integram de maneira decisiva os fluxos financeiros produtivos e rentistas que atravessam o planeta. Do ponto de vista das subjetividades, e enquanto objetos tecnológicos, eles atendem às demandas dos processos saúde doença, contribuem para a melhoria de diferentes performatividades humanas e ainda alimentam o sonho do melhoramento e da felicidade. Com o objetivo de problematizar o lugar cultural e tecnocientífico dos medicamentos, este artigo percorre trabalhos de Madeleine Akrisch, François Dagognet, Philippe Pignare e Ronald W. Dworkin, que os abordam em diferentes perspectivas. Na sequência, discute os processos de medicalização e biomedicalização em curso nos dias atuais, destacando as questões do sujeito cerebral (Alain Ehrenberg), do self neuroquímico (Nikolas Rose), e do lugar atual da psicologia cognitiva. Em contraponto, retoma a figura do monstro, tal como abordada por Michel Foucault, para ativá-la como categoria da imaginação, da anomalia e da singularização, multiplicando os horizontes éticos que se colocam para a pesquisa conjunta entre tecnociências e subjetividades.

Al Wunder's biography, in his own words: I had four lucky breaks that precipitated my becoming a teacher of improvised movement theatre. Between the ages of eight and fourteen I broke my right leg four different times. In 1962, I began modern dance classes with Alwin Nikolais as a physical therapy. His choreography and improvisation sections of class inspired me to teach and perform professionally. I spent eight years studying, teaching, choreographing, and performing with Nikolais.1970 saw me move to the San Francisco Bay area where I opened a dance studio teaching Nikolais dance technique and improvisation. In 1971, I joined forces with Terry Sendgraff and Ruth Zaporah creating The Berkeley Dance Theater & Gymnasium. My focus was to create a way to teach dance technique through improvisation. I met my Australian wife, Lynden Nicholls, in 1981 when she came to study Motivity at Terry’s studio in Berkeley. In 1982, I moved to Melbourne, Australia where Lynden and I set up a dance studio. My focus changed from teaching dance technique improvisationally to teaching improvised movement theatre performance.Over the next thirty years I developed a pedagogy that inspired professional and non-professional performers to create improvised movement theatre pieces. In 2006, I self-published a book, The Wonder of Improvisation. In 2017, a documentary was made by Michelle Dunn, The Wonder of Improvisation. In 2021, a book was written by Hilary Elliott and published by Routledge, The Motional Improvisation of Al Wunder.

Magister thesis focuses on dance technique, that is developed since 1950s in America. Alwin Nikolais was the creator of concept, principles and philosophy. Murray Louis, his collaborator and partner collected and compiled Nikolais´s ideas to the sophisticated system, called Nikolais/Louis Technique. The technique is neutral in any style and high oriented to perform.

Nikolaïs a prolongé la pensée de Laban et l'a enrichie en l'expérimentant sur les corps-mêmes des danseurs de sa compagnie. son approche s'est développée dans un va-et-vient constant entre les 'principles' et l'expérience sensible du corps dansant. les éléments de langage chorégraphique (qualités de 'motion', 'shape'...) et les outils pédagogiques de nikolaïs (décentrement, 'gestalt' ou totalité reconnaissable, triade technique-improvisation-composition...) se sont élaborés sans être soumis à un savoir théorique extérieur. Cet enseignement consiste à munir le corps et l'esprit d'un savoir et d'une conscience immédiate des facteurs entrant en jeu dans le mouvement dansé. L'étude tendra à affirmer que là où il y a pédagogie, il y a théorie. la 'theory' est chez Nikolaïs un moment d'investigation à travers l'improvisation où concept, chorégraphie et performances sont instantanés. l'improvisation, un des éléments-clés de la modernité en danse, semble donc représenter le processus privilégié où pratique et théorie se confondent ou se vérifient l'une l'autre. Par ailleurs, sera aussi questionnée la prétendue "universalité" des outils et éléments de syntaxe de Nikolaïs, par l'analyse du contexte particulier des années 1950 (historique, socio-politique, artistique et technologique) et l'idéologie très liée à la personnalité de son créateur et à l'engouement qu'il a suscité. On se propose donc de déconstruire le modèle en empruntant une troisième voie au-delà de l'héritage fidèlement entretenu ou rejeté pour tenter, en contrant la présence diffuse de cet enseignement en France, une réhabilitation et une analyse qui questionneront la pertinence et les enjeux de cette pensée aujourd'hui.

In this thesis, named "Alwin Nikolais choreographer and scenic visionarist of second half of 20.th century", I wanted to look closely into choreographic work of Alwin Nikolais and focus on artistic komponent of his productions. I had the aim to analyse his most significant choreographies on the basis of videotapes, to envolve his essential phraseology and originaly way of visual conception. I was interested in his experimentation in the sphere of light design, costumes, movements and scenography, which had important impact on contamporary dance all over the world. I also mentioned his importance and legacy of his work and pedagogical activity.

Lucinda Childs est une figure majeure de la danse au XXe siècle. Au début des années 1960, elle participe à la fondation du Judson Dance Theater, un collectif de danseurs, danseuses, chorégraphes, artistes et compositeurs qui renouvellent à New York les formes et les pratiques de la danse. Avec sa compagnie crée en 1973, elle devient l’une des cheffes de file de la danse minimale et de la danse postmoderne américaines, tout en collaborant à partir des années 1980 avec les plus importantes compagnies de ballet en Europe et aux États-Unis. Dans le processus de création, répétition et représentation que Childs met en œuvre seule, avec sa compagnie, ou des compagnies de répertoire, l’écriture et la lecture jouent un rôle déterminant pour concevoir et incorporer ses danses. Grâce à une enquête anthropologique au cœur des studios de danse, Lou Forster montre que le geste technique consistant à danser page à la main se construit à l’intersection de deux histoires parallèles. Au cours des années 1950, John Cage et Merce Cunningham inventent un ensemble de pratiques de lecture et d’écriture afin de s’opposer, détourner et reconfigurer des approches académiques dans lesquelles l’écrit constitue un support pour assoir des partages disciplinaires et des hiérarchies. Cette approche néo-avant-gardiste joue un rôle primordial au Judson ; et parmi les membres de ce groupe, Childs est l’une des chorégraphes qui se montrent la plus attentive à ces pratiques lettrées car elles rejoignent un aspect méconnu de sa formation de danseuse. En effet, elle étudie la danse moderne de 1955 à 1962 au sein de l’important réseau de la diaspora allemande de New York. Elle suit en particulier la formation dispensée dans l’école de la chorégraphe Hanya Holm (1893-1992) où est enseignée une forme américanisée de danse d’expression (Ausdruckstanz). Childs y découvre la cinétographie Laban ou Labanotation, le système d’analyse et d’écriture du mouvement développé par le chorégraphe austro-hongrois Rudolf Laban (1879-1958), dans lequel les danseurs et danseuses répètent page à la main. C’est vers cet événement de lecture atypique pour le monde de la danse que Childs se tourne quinze ans plus tard pour travailler avec sa compagnie. L’histoire de l’art et l’histoire de la danse ont dissocié ces deux versants des modernités chorégraphiques lorsqu’à partir de 1933 une partie de la danse d’expression se compromet avec le régime nazi. Aux États-Unis se construit alors le mythe d’une originalité de la danse moderne américaine, qui s’accentue encore dans le cadre de la guerre froide. La position privilégiée que Childs occupe dans cette histoire connectée la conduit à faire des pratiques graphiques une matrice du postmodernisme. À partir de 1973, elle aborde l’ensemble des techniques canoniques de la danse occidentale, passant au fil des années de la danse d’expression aux activités piétonnières, au ballet néoclassique puis baroque. Se positionnant comme une appropriationiste, elle développe une perspective historique et critique sur ces techniques d’emprunt. Dans ses pièces, elle tend ainsi à rassembler des genres et des histoires de la danse qui ont été séparées et disjointes, élaborant une véritable poétique de la relation
Lucinda Childs is a major figure in twentieth-century dance. In the early 1960s, she was one of the founding members of the Judson Dance Theater, a group of dancers, choreographers, artists and composers in New York City who reinvigorated dance forms and practices. With the establishment of her company in 1973, she emerged as one of the leading figures of American minimal dance and postmodern dance, while collaborating from the 1980s onward with major ballet companies in Europe and the United States. Whether with her own company, with repertory dance companies, or at Judson, literacy plays a crucial role in the conceiving, embodying, and performing of her dances. Through an anthropological investigation within dance studios, Lou Forster demonstrates that the technical gesture of dancing, page in hand, is constructed at the intersection of two parallel histories. In the 1950s, John Cage and Merce Cunningham devised a range of reading and writing practices in order to oppose, divert and reconfigure academic methods in which literacy serves as a foundation to establish disciplinary divisions and hierarchies. This neo-avant-garde approach played a crucial role at Judson. Among the members of this group, Childs was one of the choreographers who paid the most attention to these literacy practices, as they tied in with a lesser-known aspect of her dance training. From 1955 to 1962, she studied modern dance within the extensive network of the German diaspora in New York. Specifically, she attended the school run by the choreographer Hanya Holm (1893-1992), where an Americanised form of dance of expression (Ausdruckstanz) was taught. There Childs discovered Kinetography Laban or Labanotation, the system of analysing and writing movement developed by the Austro-Hungarian choreographer Rudolf Laban (1879-1958), in which dancers rehearse with page in hand. Fifteen years later she turned toward this literacy event, unusual for the dance world, to work with her company. Art history and dance history dissociated these two aspects of choreographic modernity when, from 1933, part of the dance of expression became involved with the Nazi regime. In the United States, the myth of the originality of American Modern dance began to take shape, further emphasized during the Cold War. Childs' unique position in this connected history meant that graphic practices became a matrix for postmodernism. Since 1973, she embraced all canonical techniques of Western dance, moving over the years from dance of expression to pedestrian activities, to Neoclassical and then to the Baroque. Positioning herself as an appropriationist, she developed a historical and critical perspective on these borrowed techniques. In her pieces, she seeks to bring together practices, genres and histories of dance that have been separated and disjointed, crafting a genuine poetics of relation

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2008.
Advisor: John Perpener, Florida State University, College of Visual Arts, Theatre, and Dance, Dept. of Dance. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 13, 2008). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 99 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Abstract The Abominatron was an unexpected hit at the 1964 Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention, attracting the attention of luminaries and musical heavy-hitters such as Alwin Nikolais, Eric Siday, Lejaren Hiller, and people from the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Bob found himself taking orders for modules, something he’d never anticipated. Nikolais and Siday become his first customers. But in the meantime, he needed to roll out the high-end amp (dubbed the PMS-15) because the business had lost $28,000. Tooling up to produce 100, he ended up selling three—a catastrophic end to a two-year project. But success at AES gave him hope and he threw himself into hawking the new equipment, taking an ad in a 1965 AES journal, and attending the Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA) convention. No sales were secured at the convention, but Bob met George Kelischek, an instrument builder who would become very influential in his life.

Abstract This Introduction lays out the historical and theoretical framework for the entire book, speaking to the fields of dance studies and China studies. It first states the research questions and main contributions of the book, and then introduces the major Chinese modern dancers under study—Yu Rongling, Wu Xiaobang, Dai Ailian, and Guo Mingda—and their connections to the Western canonical counterparts, including Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman, Rudolf von Laban, and Alwin Nikolais. It explains the book’s transnational and transcultural perspective and its critical, dialectic stance toward both Eurocentrism and Sinocentrism in Western and Chinese dance historiographies. The chapter critically compares John Martin’s expression theory of modern dance with the Chinese counterpart and points out the distinctive characteristics of dance modernism in China in terms of dance’s intermedial relation to language and other artistic mediums. It then reflects on the nature of the book as “a dance history without dance,” as well as on the employed primary sources and interpretive strategies, by integrating theoretical views on this issue in the existing dance scholarship. The Introduction concludes with chapter outlines.

Abstract The “Epilogue” introduces Guo Mingda, a Chinese male modern dancer-choreographer and theorist. Guo left Republican China (1912–1949) for the United States in 1947, obtained his master’s degree in dance education from the University of Iowa (1947–1950), pursued a doctorate in dance education at New York University (1951–1954), learned various schools of Euro-American modern dance, studied dance and choreography with Alwin Nikolais (1910–1993) at the Henry Street Playhouse in New York for four years (1952–1955), and returned to socialist China in 1955. Guo translated, integrated, and reinterpreted histories and theories of various schools of modern dance and played an instrumental role in preserving the modern dance discourse in socialist China—during a time when modern dance was banned—and in reviving the genre in the Reform Era of the 1980s. Therefore, Guo’s modern dance endeavors provided an important “(anti-)American link” that connected the end of modern/new dance in China in 1960 and the genre’s resurgence in the early 1980s, with the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) in between.

Hanya Holm, dancer, choreographer, and teacher, is widely considered one of the pioneers of American modern dance, and was one of the most influential figures to transfer German dance philosophies and practices across the Atlantic. In an international career that spanned eight decades, she established herself as an award-winning choreographer of diverse genres, a master teacher, and a tireless advocate for dance. Her approach to kinetic abstraction and the lived experience of movement was foundational to modern dance practice and theory. In particular, she developed elaborate theories of the dancer’s relationship to space. Unlike some of her colleagues, Holm did not develop a codified technique, but instead taught through improvisational exploration of a comprehensive movement syllabus based on natural forces such as gravity and momentum. She insisted that each dance composition have its own form and its own vocabulary—an imperative passed down to her from her mentor Mary Wigman—and Holm, in turn, encouraged her students to develop their own aesthetic. Protégés including Alwin Nikolais, Murray Louis, Nancy Hauser, Valerie Bettis, Eve Gentry, Don Redlich, and Glen Tetley made distinctive contributions to modern dance in the latter half of the twentieth century.