Page 89 - Demo

MasterMoves:NikolaisBY JUDITH SCHMUKLERRecently returned from tours of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis and their respective companies opened Thursday evening, February 15, for a 10-day run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with three works from the repertory and a premiere by Murray Louis. It was a fine beginning to what purports to be an exciting stay in Brooklyn.It is a very important momen in theatre for first-timers at a Nikolais concert. Nowhere else can one see a total theatre concept from one m an%u2019s viewpoint. N ik o lais, sin g le -h a n d e d , choreographs the movement, creates the electronic sound score, designs the lighting and costumes. The harmony of these elements is unique and quite fascinating. They blend, they are an intrinsic part of each other, so that only the total effect overwhelms. If each element were created by a different artist, the possibility of conflict is very great.Alwin Nikolais%u2019 %u201cSomniloquy%u201d is a beautiful example of his theatre. His dancers, with special notice of Lynn Levine and Sizanne McDermaid, move confidently through space. Their bodies are like finely iuned machines, responding to variations in rhythm, mood and texture without hesitation. They explore space and time, they create new space, they move through space which is almost constantly changing through the use of lighting and projected images. Nikolais fills the stage with energy and change, using the full potential of the human and technical participants.His second work %u201cTower%u201d which is the third act of Vaudeville of the Elements, is completely different in tone. Each dancer works with a prop that looks like a tubular steel construction unit. They join them together to make various shapes which ultimately form a tower. The dancers, besides dancing, alternately talk to the audience, laugh, cry, complain, lecture and do a lot of clowning but as the dance progresses they appear to become more tense and frightened. The sound gets louder and more violent, they begin to scream, there is an explosion and it is all over. In a very abstract fashion %u201cTower%u201d is a social commentary in the form of a happening. It is still relevant, although it had its premiere in 1965.Murray Louis, who began as a student of Nikolais, has had his own company now for a number of years. Louis%u2019 concentration is more on choreography, but he also uses innovative theatrical elements within his work. His choreography is often concerned with people and how and why they function as they do.Louis and his company of six beautiful and beautifully trained dancers move through space as though it were created for them. Not only do they move with energy and exhileration, but they also make the space around them come alive. This is clearly seen in the 1973 premiere, %u201c Index%u201d ..,(to necessary neurosis), which combines finely controlled, diverse movement with a very clever senseContinued on Page 11FiveW .I.LL presentsGEO RG E BACHauthor of %u201c The IntimateE nem v%u201d and %u201cP a irin a %u201d andnoted California therapist will lead two events at tne Carnegie Endowment Center, 345 East 46 St.%u201cPairing%u201d lec-dem. Friday, Feb. 23, 8:00-11:00PM, $6.00. %u201c C reative A ggression%u201d wrkshp. By reservation. Saturday, Feb. 24, 10:00 - 4:00PM. $40.00%u00a3 ---- ! - %u00a3 - ------- 11 A / Pi w i ! I H I U . W U II T \\JMove To Keep MUSE AliveAfter New Center RisesBY CORRINE COLEMAXTMUSE, the Bedford Lincoln Neighborhood Museum, may be that rarity in modern urban culture %u2014 an interim institute that continues long after its %u201cpermanent%u201d replacement is on the ground.Opened in 1968 as a temporary center after the razing of the old Brooklyn Children%u2019s Museum in Brower Park, MUSE has combined an extraordinary new workshop set up, concert and neighborhood festival program with mainstays of the world%u2019s first children%u2019s center, like the beloved live animal department, see and touch exhibits, and weekend planetarium shows. Between the demolition and the pending replacement (to go up again in Brower Park) the country%u2019s second neighborhood museum has risen on the borders of Bedford-Stuyvesant to build a following determined to keep it going as a permanent arrangement.Housed in a former automobile showroom on the corner of Bedford Ave. and Lincoln Place, MUSE has become the center for free jazz workshops for neighborhood and borough students which are led by acknowledged music masters. Weekdays after school and all day Saturday, kids lugging instrument cases pull open the heavy yellow door of the converted building and zoom to their music sessions with Bill and Kenny Barron, Jimmie Owens, Lawrence Lucie, Don Jay, Reggie Workman, Fred Simmons,%u2019 Chris White, Rudy Collins and Kiane Zawadi.Wednesdays are jamming nights at MUSE and the same kids plus musicians from around the city sit in, or listen to the eclectic or trend setting sounds that have received rave reviews from music makers and critics in theknow.The MUSE poetry workshops run by Bill Zavatsky and Larry Fagin on Saturdays have inspired the kids to fool around with language, to bring forth thoughts and feelings that rarely emerge in typical academic circumstances. With poet mentors Zavatsky and Fagin, the kids let go, and their unique and lively poetry has already been seen and heard around the country. Photography, painting, sculpture and dance are offered too at MUSE, and the children have learned to register months ahead to insure a place at the sessions.Though the center relates to the interest and curiosity of all children %u2014 to every kid%u2019s need to touch and feed the pet rabbits, hamsters and goats, to every child%u2019s concern about the celestial system, early implements, gems and dolls %u2014 as a neighborhood museum it also pays special attention to the history and current involvements of the black people who are residents in the area. Recently a week long fair devoted to W eeksville, Brooklyn%u2019s earliest known black settlement, was held outdoors and combined with an exhibit in the center. Old pottery, glassware, manuscripts, dolls and other artifacts were shown at MUSE, with craft displays, candlemaking and chair caning, going on outside. The culminating event included music, speeches, feasts and dancing out on the nearby streets.The story of the music of African people, called %u201cJazz in the First Person,%u201d was presented at MUSE during last summer and fall. Photographs, manuscripts, scores, from the music%u2019s beginnings to now, were tacked to the walls, while the sounds of the various jazz styles eminated from compartments set up for that purpose. A room was decorated in early twentieth century style, complete with player piano, old phonograph, cylinders and photos of Bessieas MUSE director Lloyd Hezekiah says, %u201cfulfill an old promise to give the old institution a new home.%u201d The building, ground for which was broken last summer,James Gittens of the Bed-Stuy Sculpture Workshop sharing clay work with children at MUSE. (Jymie Productions Photo)Smith and other greats of the time. Live concerts illustrating aspects of the music were performed weekly during the time of the exhibit.With the new Brooklyn Children%u2019s Museum going up, and completion date slated for 1974, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences which now sponsors MUSE, will move to the permanent spot. The new museum in Brower Park will%u201cwill look to the 21st century,%u201d the director says, adding that %u201cevery square foot will be flexible %u2014 multi purpose %u2014 for learning and exploring.%u201d Hoping that all the people who remember their early feelings about the old museum, (the two Victorian buildings built in 1899 with their animals, games, exhibits %u2014 then the only such center in New York for decades) willContinued on Page 5Special \The Heights Players current Theatre for Children production, %u201cAlice In Wonderland%u201d will be presented in a special performance Saturday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m.The many requests of members of the Players%u2019 adult audienceprompted this special performance with the proceeds going into a new seat fund, says a Players spokesman.Reservations for the special night may be made by calling 625- 8875 at 7:30 p.m. any evening.ARTISTS!INTERESTED IN SH O W IN G ?NEED A PLACE TO W O R K ?A Limited Number of OpeningsGALLERY 91 are Now A vailable.HEIGHTS-HILLinfor INFO, call UL5-2214GALLERY 93^STEPPINGSTONE * ** POTTERY %u2022 %u2022 %u2022 *wholesale - retail - special ordersclasses - workshop224 Atlantic A venue 624-9575* lbWINTER CLOSE-OUTVAUDEVILLE %u201e ANTIQUECREATIONS wtDPTgOuTi^ CLOTHINGfrom $1 J , from 5(KT H E WFURS ..S eal-M u skrat-R acco o n -M in k..fro m $ 1 0 .0 0W A SH ED JEA N S S SW EA TERS from $2 .5 0U N IFO RM JA C K E T S from $2 - M USIC JA C K E T S $5N A M E JEA N S & N A V Y PAN TS $4 .9 9C P O Sh irts from $ 1 .5 0 - SH O ES $3 to $8G R E A T C O A T S ..A rm y -N av y-M arin e -A .F...fro m $8.95290 ATLANTIC AVE.co rn er of Sm ith St.MOM.-SAT. 11-8 SUN. 12-68 5 5 -6 7 6 1A FREE INCENSE STICKWHOLESALE RETAIL with %u00abverv nurchm eJl