Biography
Nicks was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Cleveland, Ohio, where he graduated from Central High School. From 1942-1944 he attended Howard University. His early dance training took place at Cleveland's Karamu Settlement House.
He studied dance at the Katherine Dunham School in New York (1945), whose teachers included Dunham, Lavinia Williams, Talley Beatty, Tommy Gomez, Archie Savage and Marie Bryant. He also studied with José Limón, Robert Joffrey, Karel Shook, Louis Horst and Doris Humphrey.
Dunham awarded him (1947) a fellowship to study for a Master Teaching Certificate in Dunham Technique, which he received in 1948.
In 1947 Nicks was appointed Assistant Director of Dance at the Dunham School, a position which he held until 1953.
In 1948-49 he danced in the Benny Goodman Jazz Review on a 13-month tour.
Nicks left the Dunham School in 1953. Forming a small company, "El Ballet Negro de Walter Nicks," in Mexico, he performed at the Insurgentes Theatre in Mexico City in a production starring Cantinflas; at the Sans Souci in Havana; on television in the Dominican Republic, and at the Condado Beach Hotel in San Juan. Also during this period, he spent five months in Haiti observing Vodou dances.
Upon his return to New York, he became an instructor with the Phillips-Fort Studio (1954–55). In 1954 he performed with Joe Nash and others in Donald McKayle’s “Games” at the 92nd Street Y.
Nicks died 3 April 2007 in Brooklyn, New York.
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