{"id":1066,"date":"2022-07-07T15:33:10","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T15:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/?p=1066"},"modified":"2024-12-06T12:36:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:36:41","slug":"reblog-deep-costume-history-an-unexpected-resource-for-unique-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/2022\/07\/07\/reblog-deep-costume-history-an-unexpected-resource-for-unique-research\/","title":{"rendered":"REBLOG! Deep Costume History: An Unexpected Resource for Unique Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sherri Saines, OHIO Librarian for Social Sciences. View the original post<\/a> on the Fashion, Textiles, and Costume Librarians ARLIS\/NA Special Interest Group Blog, and corresponding Instagram post<\/a> about Sherri’s visit to the Mahn Center.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Colored
Panels of illustrations and text of Choreographic Works, MSS181 Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Papers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Ohio University Libraries<\/a>\u00a0Archives and Special Collections<\/a>\u00a0(Athens, OH) holds the\u00a0Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance Collection<\/a>, a gift of Murray Louis. The libraries\u2019 connection is via principal dancer\u00a0Gladys Bailin<\/a>\u00a0who went on to head the Ohio University School of Dance until 1995. This\u00a0extensive group\u00a0of papers, photos, videos, sketches, and even a set of\u00a03d costume models<\/a>\u00a0gives us insight into the design and choreography of this influential 20th<\/sup>\u00a0C dance troupe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nicolais\/Lewis Dance Company, (circa 1948-1993), was known for pure movement and intriguing choreography that mixed movement, costume, and setting in new ways.\u00a0Alwin Nikolais\u00a0directed the dance school at the Henry Street Playhouse in New York in 1948 and went on to create the music, dance steps, lighting, staging, and costumes for his creations.\u00a0Murray Louis\u00a0came on as a dancer but soon was as involved with creation as his partner. Their many years of collaboration resulted in iconic works such as\u00a0Tensile Involvement<\/a>,\u00a0Crucible<\/a>, and\u00a0Shadow Dance.<\/a>\u00a0(Others are findable on YouTube).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book\u00a0The Nikolais\/Louis dance technique : a philosophy and method of modern dance \/ Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis, 2005,<\/a>\u00a0describes their methods and philosophy.\u00a0The Nikolais\/Louis Foundation<\/a>\u00a0perpetuates their vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe Nikolais\/Louis technique is based on the philosophy that the undertaking of dance training is not a simple or singular event, but a lifelong investment in personal enrichment.\u201d \u2013 The Nikolais\/Louis Dance Technique<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

OU libs recently received an NEH grant to plan for the digitization<\/a> of the media herein. Currently there are a few teaser files in our Digital Collections<\/a> folders. Over 400 more cubic feet of shelving and boxes wait to be explored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brown
Boxes from the Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis collection on shelves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looking into just the <\/span><\/span>“sketches\u201d folder<\/span><\/span><\/a> of the online items yields doodles and color studies and lighting charts that might be the beginnings of costumes. Many research projects could be imagined from these resources: I had to restrain myself from getting lost tracing a costume from the doodle to the design to the model to the lighting charts to the stage.<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Red<\/a>
Costume sketch on green paper, MSS181 Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Papers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Blue,<\/a>
Design motif O1, MSS181 Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Papers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
Dance costume on wooden figure, MSS181 Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Papers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We invite researchers interested in the history of the evolution of dance and dance costume to contact Greta Suiter,<\/a> Manuscripts Archivist, for a chance to see these materials in person and build your own story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sherri Saines, OHIO Librarian for Social Sciences. View the original post on the Fashion, Textiles, and Costume Librarians ARLIS\/NA Special Interest Group Blog, and corresponding Instagram post about Sherri’s visit to the Mahn Center.\u00a0 The\u00a0Ohio University Libraries\u00a0Archives and Special Collections\u00a0(Athens, OH) holds the\u00a0Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance Collection, a gift of Murray Louis. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,47],"tags":[46,44,45],"class_list":["post-1066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manuscript-collections","category-reblog","tag-costumes","tag-dance","tag-nikolais-and-louis"],"modified_by":"Greta Suiter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3909,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions\/3909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}