Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Review and Comments about the Tensile's Choreographer---Alwin Nikolais

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.
(Austen, Diamond. "Dance Review: Alwin Nikolais Centennial." The Daily Feed. Salt Lake City Weekly, 22 Apr. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2015. <http://www.cityweekly.net/TheDailyFeed/archives/2011/04/22/dance-review-alwin-nikolais-centennial>.)

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.


   Tensile Involvement



2 comments:

  1. Those lines and colors create a unkown and mysterious space. The light effect is useful. it's different with the ancient dance. Modern dance use more technological element life light and music, custom. It means that dance are entering a brand new age.

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  2. It is amazing how Nikoli used color and lighting to affect how the audience saw space. There are times in that piece where the stage seems infinite and mysterious while still having a concert sized stage. The ability to do this affects how the audience sees a dance and I can't imagine what this piece would look like without the lighting.

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