In conclusion,
light and colors are really important for dances and for all the arts.
Lights and colors could change the mood and create some specific atmospheres
for us such us, mysterious atmosphere, horrible atmosphere or bloody
atmospheres. Different colors have different meanings. For example, red is the
sample of passion, war, lucky… Green is the sample of health, nature, youth…
In addition, light would
not only add colors on objects, but also create shadows, add texts and pictures.
One good example is Bill T. Jones’s dances Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We
Pray which combines colors, texts and pictures. Now, more and more artists
using lights and colors in their dances to show audiences their feelings and
thoughts. In the future, I would write more about this topic--- light and
colors influence 20th Century concert dance.
There are a lot of
reviews and comments about Nikolais’s dances
“Nikolais was a leader.
He brought one to the doors of their imagination, to find their own way. Where
this process led to was not his concern, but to open their imagination was...”
—Murray Louis---
Nikolais’s dances are
dehumanizing, which full of imagination. (Austen, Diamond. "Dance Review: Alwin Nikolais Centennial." The Daily Feed. Salt Lake City Weekly, 22 Apr. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.)
Here is a dance review
about Alwin Nikolais’s dance “ Tensile Involvement”.
The program began with
“Tensile Involvement,” which had eight dancers moving white webbing hung from
the opposite upper corner of the stage. With flashing lights, the effect was a
technicolor spiderweb serving as the backdrop for soloists (dressed like
psychedelic Ronold McDonalds) dancing in and out of time with the industrial,
erratic soundtrack. It was shocking and awesome, despite how desensitized we
are in 2011—one can only imagine how the 1955 premiere wowed the audience.
Here is my personal
opinion about Tensile. In this dance, Nikolais tried to use wedding hung and
electric colors to create a mysterious atmosphere for us. By changing the
webbings’ shapes and angles, Nikolais showed us a spider web which was
attractive and vivid. By adjusting the colors, Nikolais showed us his boundless
imaginations and his main idea --- “dehumanizing”. The varying colors and
shapes showed a kind of liberating. These colors changing without order which
made me feel that I was in a dream.
Alwin Nikolais, was born
in November 25, 1910/1912, Southington, Connecticut, U.S.,and died in May 8,
1993, New York. He abstract dances combined motion with various technical
effects and a complete freedom from technique and established patterns. Those
technical effects absolutely include light effects.
Nikolais began his study
of dance with Trude Kaschmann around 1935. In 1937 he founded a dance school
and company in Hartford. He was director of the dance department of Hartford school
of Music from 1940 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1949. He became Hanya Holm’s
assistant after World War II. In 1948 he joined the Henry Street Settlement in
New York City and founded its school of modern dance. Then he became artistic
director of its playhouse.
The Nikolais Dance
Theater was formed in 1951. In 1953 the company presented Nikolais’s first
major work, Masks, Props, and Mobiles, in which the dancers were wrapped in
stretch fabric to create unusual, fanciful shapes.
In later works—such as
Kaleidoscope (1956), Allegory (1959), Totem (1960), and Imago (1963)—Nikolais
continued experiments in integration of motion, sound, shape, and color. His
later works include Tent (1968), Scenario (1971), Guignol (1977), Count Down
(1979), and Talisman (1981). Nikolais frequently composed electronic scores for
these productions.
Imago
Totem
Tent
Although Nikolais’s
choreography was sometimes criticized as “dehumanizing,” he maintained instead
that it was liberating. He asserted that, in depersonalizing his dancers, they were relieved of their own forms and, hence, allowed to identify with whatever they portrayed.Nikolais was also noted for advancing the related
concept of “decentralization”. It means focal point could be anywhere on the
dancer’s body or even outside the body. This was a departure from the
traditional opinion that the “centre” of focus was the solar plexus.
During the 1970s the
Nikolais group toured widely abroad. In 1978 the new National Centre of
Contemporary Dance at Angers, a Nikolais school and company that made its debut
in Angers, France, in November 1979. Then, Nikolais made films of his works.
In this dance, Loie
Fuller tried to use soft silk and electric colors to mimic fire. The China silk
is really good for mimicking flame because it is soft and serpentine. Because of these qualities, Chinese also use silk in the traditional Chinese dances. By
rotating, folding and curving the silk, Loie Fuller created a illusion which looked like vivid fire. By
adjusting the colors, Loie showed fire’s temperature variation. For example,
the main colors were changing all the time during the dance. There were red,
yellow, green, blue, light blue. There were no specific order about these
colors which pointed out the temperature was changing all the time. However,
because the red appeared frequently, we could not only easily find out this
dance presenting fire to us, but also easily feel Loie Fuller’s passion about her
dance. Around 1900, French focused on invitations and new
techniques. By using electric light into her dances on stage, Loie fuller also
showed us that she was interesting in invitations and high technics. In addition, I really
appreciate Loie bring those invitations to the stage. This action not only redefined the modern dance, but also brought benefits to the
later artists.
Additional sources:
(X-factors)---Inspirations coming from Loie Fuller and Loie Fuller's inspirations
1.Here
is a link which shows us a performance created by current dancers and
photographers. The inspirations were coming from Loie Fuller.
Reimagining
Loie Fuller's Ballet of Light
2.There
are some traditional china dances which involves silk strips. These dances maybe influenced Loie Fuller.
