Douglas Nielsen, professor of contemporary dance and choreography. Photo by Roy Blakey.
He doesn't dance or choreograph for the accolades, but gets them anyway. University of Arizona School of Dance Professor Douglas Nielsen has been selected to receive the prestigious 2007 Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching Award at the American Dance Festival (ADF).
This is the premier teaching award at the nation's leading dance festival, held each summer at Duke University.
The award was established in 1991 as the first endowed teaching chair in dance. It was created through the contribution of Luise Elcaness Scripps, with additional support from Walter Beinecke, the daughters of Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke, and the American Dance Festival. Linda Tarnay, chairperson of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts/Dance, also will be honored.
Nielsen has been associated with the ADF since 1987 at Duke University and internationally in China, Korea, Russia, Czech Republic, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. He received the 2003 Lester Horton Dance Educator Award for excellence in teaching and has been an adjudicator for the American College Dance Festival in Virginia, Texas, Idaho, Kansas, Connecticut and California.
The dance world values Nielsen's experience and talent. He has served as a distinguished panelist for the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards, the National Association for the Advancement of the Arts, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the McKnight Foundation. Nielsen also has received four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a performing arts fellowship with the Arizona Commission on the Arts.
"Recognition is a huge responsibility," says Nielsen. "When I think of those choreographers and dancers who have received this award before me, I'm humbled. Former winners were my idols and mentors. I guess, without checking my birth certificate, I've become the next generation!"
Since his return to the UA School of Dance last spring, audiences at the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre have experienced several new works by Nielsen. He recontructed Paul Sanasardo's "Metallics," a dance he performed in 30 years ago.
Nielsen is currently working on a collaboration with the UA's School of Architecture. "I prefer to make new work," he says. "The stimulation and sensation of being lost inside a new creation is what I live for."
Between semesters, Nielsen continues to travel to teach and choreograph. Most recently, he went to Ulaanbaatat, Mongolia, where he taught at the State Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. He also staged a 30-minute piece sponsored by the Arts Council of Mongolia.
Nielsen is a former member of the Batsheva Dance Company in Israel and the Gus Solomons, Pearl Lang and Paul Sanasardo dance companies in New York. He established his own company in 1982 and has performed solo works by Viola Farber, Beverly Blossom, Anna Sokolov, Murray Louis and Charles Weidman. He is an internationally known teacher, choreographer, performer and director.
His residencies abroad include: the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers/France; L'ecole-Atelier Rudra Bejart Lausanne in Switzerland; Dansens Hus, Copenhagen; The Beijing Dance Adademy in China; University of Chile, Santiago; Palucca Schule in Dresden, Germany; and University of the Americas, Mexico,.
Nielsen will be teaching advanced and modern choreographic technique in a three-week ADF workshop at Duke University beginning June 7. He will be presented with his award in a special ceremony Sunday, June 10, in Duke's Reynolds Industries Theater.