Unique Gesture: Exploring the Alwin Nikolais & Murray Louis Dance Collection

An exhibit of two American pioneers of modern dance, Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis, is now on display on the fifth floor of Alden Library. The exhibit, titled “Unique Gesture,” is visually delightful and showcases the diversity of materials in the Libraries’ Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance Collection.

Additionally, there will be a separate exhibit and presentation by faculty of dance, Tresa Randall and Gladys Bailin, titled “Exploring the Career of Gladys Bailin” on Oct. 11 from 3-5 p.m. in the Music and Dance Library inside Glidden Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

About Nikolais & Louis

Coined the father of multimedia, Nikolais’ career spanned 55 years and included everything from choreographing dance and opera, to designing costumes and props, to composing music and creating sets. Years later, Nikolais merged with the Murray Louis Dance Company to form a single company—Murray Louis and Alwin Nikolais Dance, the collection of which was later donated to Ohio University Libraries.

“The [Nikolais/Louis] collection not only documents the dances themselves, but all the work behind it. You will get to see elements of costume design and lighting design, choreography, posters and promotion. It is [viewing] the company in a really wholistic way, not just through performances,” explains Stacey Lavender, co-curator of the exhibit and special collections librarian for the Libraries’ manuscript collections.

Lavender, who works closely with librarians and instructors to help integrate special collections like the Nikolais/Louis collection into the classroom, teamed up with lorraine wochna, co-curator of the exhibit and subject librarian for the performing arts, to create the exhibit.

“The thing that I have been learning is not only the sense of history that you get about dance, but also… you look at their first dance, and then all of a sudden, you see they are becoming internationally [known]. You can see it through their pamphlets and programs for all of the events. You watch them become an international [dance] company—where everyone knows who they are all over the world,” says wochna.

Classroom Visits and Research

Viewing the exhibits of special collections is two-fold for the viewer: it opens the doors to the visually intriguing, unique materials held in the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections in Alden Library, like the dance collection, but exhibits also give students and scholars a glimpse of the scope, depth and size of collections stewarded by the Mahn Center, and which are available for research.

“It is also really fun for me [to curate an exhibit] because it is an opportunity for me to really dig into the collections, and I get to do a little bit of telling a story about the materials and putting them together in a creative way—and it helps me later provide reference services and research assistance of those materials [to students and instructors],” continues Lavender.

The Nikolais/Louis collection is currently being used in classroom instruction by OHIO faculty like Tresa Randall, associate professor in the School of Dance, who has been bringing her students to the Mahn Center for years to experience first-hand the materials and to learn how dance historians use primary sources.

“The modern dance history class [that I teach] has a research project built into it that involves using the Nikolais/Louis collection,” explains Randall.

The four well-known, and in most cases, internationally recognized dances highlighted in the exhibit—“Kaleidoscope,” “Imago,” “Aviary” and “Crucible”—are the same dances Randall’s students research.

“I am interested in the students seeing the evolution of [Nikolais’] work over time, and seeing also how the critical reviews of his work change very much from ‘Kaleidoscope’ in the 1950s to ‘Crucible’ in the 1980s… Also, I selected those particular four dances because they are among his best-known works, and they received the most critical response—with the exception of ‘Aviary,’ ” says Randall. “I threw that one in there because it is a really good example of the importance of college and university residencies.”

About Gladys Bailin

According to Randall, there was a period in Nikolais’ career when being invited to a college residency for a few weeks with his company was not only good financially and in terms of visibility, but also helped in the development of modern dance departments in colleges and universities. In the 1970s, for example, OHIO’s School of Dance hired one of Nikolais’ company dancers, Gladys Bailin, who later became the director and earned the prestigious  title of distinguished professor in the School of Dance.

Bailin, who performed and toured nationally and internationally with both the Nikolais and Louis companies, brings decades of experience and significant importance as a professional dancer, choreographer and dance educator.

“Gladys recently donated her collection of [dance] materials from her career to Archives and Special Collections, so some of those materials will be featured in the Music and Dance exhibit,” says Lavender. “So, it is a really nice and timely way to celebrate her donation and her support of the dance collections here.”

Wochna smiles and chimes in, “So, we want to celebrate her [achievements], just Gladys, at the Music and Dance Library.”

Please stop by and visit both exhibits—and mark your calendars for the presentation “Exploring the Career of Gladys Bailin” with speakers Randall and Bailin on Oct. 11 from 3-5 p.m. starting in the Music and Dance Library, fifth floor Glidden Hall, and ending with the exhibit, “Unique Gesture,” inside Alden Library. Light refreshments will be served.

To request accessibility accommodations for this event, please contact Jen Harvey.