Walter Nicks - Achievements

Achievements

Nicks is noted for:

• Dancer in My Darlin' Aida, 1952
• Dancer and Assistant Choreographer for House of Flowers in Philadelphia and on Broadway (working under choreographers George Balanchine and Herbert Ross), 1954-55. He coached Arthur Mitchell, Geoffrey Holder, Carmen De Lavallade, Dolores Harper, Louis Johnson, Donald McKayle, Albert Popwell and Glory Van Scott and others.
• Assistant Choreographer for Jamaica under Jack Cole, working with Alvin Ailey and Christyne Lawson, 1957–59
• Assistant Choreographer for Carmen Jones under Oona White at City Center Theatre
• John Hay Whitney Fellowship to study cultural dances in Brazil (1956–1957)
• Choreorographer for Harry Belafonte (1959–1963); he choreographed Belafonte specials on CBS-TV: “Tonight with Belafonte” (1959) which won Belafonte an Emmy, “New York 19” (1960), “Look Up and Live.” and several Belafonte stage productions that toured the country, including “Sing, Man, Sing” (1956), with dancers Alvin Ailey and Mary Hinkson, and “Belafonte ‘63”.

Nicks introduced jazz dance instruction to Europe at the International Academy of Dance in Krefeld, Germany (1959).

In Sweden, under the auspices of Lia Schubert, Nicks became a consultant at the University of Stockholm (1960–67), a guest instructor at the Swedish Ballet Academy (1960), and performed there with his small company (1961–65). He appeared several times on Swedish television in the 1960s; of particular importance was the series “Introduction to Jazz Ballet” with Schubert (1966). He was professor and Director of Jazz Dance at Stockholm’s Statens Dansskola (1967–1971). He choreographed the Swedish production of West Side Story (1968). He danced in a 1969 concert of Duke Ellington’s sacred music with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Gustav Vasa Church in Stockholm, which was broadcast on Swedish television.

As a consultant to the government of Guinea in 1963, Nicks studied traditional dances and formulated recommendations which resulted in the formation of Le Ballet National Djoliba by President Sékou Touré.

In the Summer of 1972, at the request of the French Federation of Dance, Nicks founded the Walter Nicks Dance Theatre Workshop. Under the auspices of the Federation, the company toured France and Belgium, and later performed in the French Caribbean.

Nicks taught at international dance workshops and festivals in Germany, France, Israel, Spain, Italy, Finland, and East Berlin.

For several years he taught at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen-Werden, Germany.

Meanwhile, Nicks continued to be professionally active in the United States. The Walter Nicks Dance Theatre Workshop was affiliated with the Connecticut College American Dance Festival for several years beginning in 1973. It was community oriented, and concert performances were accompanied by workshops, lecture demonstrations and dance instruction.

The Nicks company participated in the National Endowment for the Arts’s “Artists-in-the-Schools” program for nine years (1973–1981).

Nicks was co-founder and Artistic Director of Centre Formation Professionelle in Poitiers, France (1982–1992).

He choreographed “Spirit Blues” for the National Ballet of Finland, which premiered on 19 October 1989 at the Finnish National Opera.

The Walter Nicks Dance Theatre Workshop was based since its inception at the Church of the Intercession in Manhattan, where Nicks performed with his dancers in the Palm Sunday pageant through 2002.

Nicks was a faculty member/resident artist at Connecticut College (American Dance Festival), University of Maryland, Bard College, Duke University (1991), and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (1992–94).