The Solo Takes Center Stage
The Art of the Solo, a program of solo works once performed by American pioneering choreographers, is touring, expanding and has already become a vital contribution to American dance history. The great variety of solos performed by those artists and choreographers, who gave us our unique modern dance legacy, has been faithfully recreated into evenings of the beauty and wonder. The repertoire for The Art of the Solo spans back to vaudeville days when Graham, Humphrey, Weidman and so many others performed in prologs, those grandiose stage shows performed prior to the running of a black and white silent film. As uniquely American as the camera and film itself, the prolog venue instigated protest and revolt as the artists sought to create an art form instead of being part of the entertainment. And here, as The Art of the Solo, is their work, in live performance once more.
"I never wanted to be in a one-choreographer company." says Mino Nicolas, "I wanted to be a repertoire dancer," says Mino Nicolas, director of The Art of the Solo programs and resident at Goucher College in Baltimore. Eventually, once the word got out that he was reconstructing these works, he was inundated with information: music, photos, copyrights, notation, film and names of artists who remember the works. Using professional Baltimore and Washington D.C. artists and others from New York and Europe, not as a company, but as individual dancers, Nicolas presents a carefully researched and meticulously performed program of solos once performed by past modern greats such as Hanya Holm, Valerie Bettis, Loie Fuller, Martha Graham, Tim Wengerd, Doris Humphrey and many, many others.
"I came across a letter in 1995, from Eleanor King, who earlier was my mentor, giving me the rights to her works and asking that I keep her works alive. A new world opened up concerning copyrights, music, costume reconstruction, original lighting and all the details that are required for a faithful restaging. It amazed me how word got around that I had restaged Humphrey's and other groundbreaking works and that such a solo program existed. I was inundated with detailed material and amazed at the dedication of the former members of the pioneer chorographers, who were anxious to help with the restaging of their works.
"Of course, as in all companies, there are disputes and differences about even the smallest details, all of which I respect and incorporate as evaluated. There are reunions as the former dancers emerge and enthusiasm runs high."
The project has taken off to the gratitude of the modern dance world. Plans are expanding to make a permanent center for research of the legacy. Meanwhile the program tours and will appear at the Kennedy Center, Terrace Theater, April 30. For more information contact: info@theartofthesolo.org., or www.theartofthesolo.org.