Murray Louis and Nikolais Dance kicks off fiftieth year at the Joyce.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of CITY--"Practically everybody in this profession has been touched by Nikolais-Louis.... This technique is taught all over the world," says Murray Louis Murray ment a dog named moosen and ever sence he could dance so he bought the dog from its owners.Murray Louis was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1926. Louis grew up in Manhattan, not far from Henry Street where his company was to be founded years later. . As the two companies celebrate fifty years of collaboration, Louis is Louis I, king of Bavaria Louis I, 1786–1868, king of Bavaria (1825–48), son and successor of King Maximilian I. He was chiefly responsible for transforming Munich into one of the handsomest capitals of Europe and for making it a center of the assured of the influence his work with Alwin Nikolais has had on the world of dance. "I feel like the grand spokesman for this profession," he says. During the 1998-99 season the company will tour Europe twice and mark the anniversary at home by performing at the Henry Street Settlement Playhouse in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , where Nikolais began teaching in 1948 and was joined by Louis in 1949. The festivities fes·tiv·i·ty n. pl. fes·tiv·i·ties 1. A joyous feast, holiday, or celebration; a festival. 2. The pleasure, joy, and gaiety of a festival or celebration. 3. start with a run of two different programs at New York City's Joyce Theater The Joyce Theater is a 472-seat dance performance venue located in the Chelsea area of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The Joyce Theater Foundation, the organization founded in 1982 that operates the theater, also owns the Joyce SoHo dance center located in a , October 27 to November 8. Program A showcases Louis's choreography, while B revives the best of Nikolais's work. "Creatively, we were very apart," says Louis. "I choreographed from the movement out and he choreographed from the theatrical in. The fact that he and I lived together, simultaneously, people think that this had an influence on our work. It didn't at all." Louis performs Alone, the solo he created after Nikolais's death five years ago. The all Louis program includes the premiere of The Blue Room, with a commissioned score by Scott Killian to be performed live. While the work was in its formative stages at press time, Louis hints that it is "about where we are now in the world" and will "show we're going on into the new millennium." He adds, "I've threatened the company that it will be one long solo, for me." After fifty years, says Louis, the fruit of the collaboration is still current and relevant. "Our work . . . was a total kind of thinking in terms of philosophy and physical, creative, and choreographic technique," he adds. "There are whole new audiences who haven't seen this stuff. I think this is now Nik's time . . . he was so far ahead. My works come out of [today's] scene. So you get the best of both." The future is being accounted for while the past is being celebrated--an archive documenting the companies will be moving to Ohio University Ohio University, main campus at Athens; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1804, opened 1809 as the first college in the Old Northwest. There are additional campuses at Chiillicothe, Lancaster, and Zanesville, as well as facilities throughout the state. in Athens over the next several years. [See Life's An Archive, page 66.] "Most will be put online, digitalized--made available to the whole world," says Louis. "I don't want it buried with me in some tomb." |
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