The ninth edition of the Festival of Rovereto dedicates a monographic tribute to choreographer Alwin Nikolais, a legendary artist and leading figure in the history of 20th-century dance. Creator of an abstract, intensely captivating multimedia theater, the "wizard" of American formalism is connected to the avant-garde movement centered around the experiments of the Bauhaus and the figure of Oskar Schlemmer. It's no coincidence that Alwin Nikolais trained with the German Hanya Holm, a collaborator of Mary Wigman.
The presence of Alwin Nikolais at the Festival of Rovereto, which this year partly focuses on the avant-garde of the first thirty years of the 20th century, represents a fundamental moment of the event and an interesting confirmation of the fertile cultural relationship between modern European dance and post-war American choreography. A total artist (signing, in addition to the choreography, the music, sets, lights, and costumes of his shows), Alwin Nikolais has asserted, since the 1950s, his original movement theater with a powerfully visionary potential.
Immersed in optical illusions and explosive kaleidoscopic games, his dance is pure "motion" and "dehumanization" of the body, where the aim is not the alienation of the being, but the transcendence of subjectivity through projection into a sci-fi space-time dimension. Among the works presented in two evenings at Oriente Occidente, chosen from the more than 160 created by the choreographer, there will be historical masterpieces of Nikolais and an Italian premiere.
Nikolais will meet the Oriente Occidente audience in a conference on his work and will hold a technique and composition workshop alongside choreographer Murray Louis, his collaborator since the 1950s. It is the first time that Nikolais, an extraordinary educator, will teach in Italy.
