Noumenon

This piece created in 1953 is particularly representative of the artistic thought of Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993). On a base, dancers are imprisoned in a tube of stretchy fabric. Each of their movements deforms the material producing changing sculptural appearances. Projections of light accentuate the metamorphoses of these strange creatures at the risk of sometimes making us forget the humanity of the performer slipped inside the fabric.
Reconfiguring anatomy through extravagant costumes, bizarre accessories or image projections is one of the motifs of Nikolais’s work. This bias underlines Nikolais’ vision of man as “part of a great whole” as he liked to say. The dancer, manipulating and manipulated, present and absent, becomes one of the parameters of his “Total Dance Theater”. It is impossible to know whether it is men or women who participate in Nikolais’s pieces as they dissolve into the landscape. The fact that Nikolais was once a puppeteer perhaps also explains this strange inclination. As for the dance, simple and effective, its aim is to bring the costumes to life, to disrupt the image projections and to bring about a plastic and colorful dream.

Source: Rosita Boisseau, En scènes, Ina