I can't speak for nikolais, but, yes, in fact, Loie Fuller did develop are
her own fabric designs and lighting techniques and technologies--she was the
first person to use color in lighting, she designed glow in the dark effects
(my friend jody tells a funny-horrifying story about how loie approached
Marie Curie for radioactive material to make glowing dances with. Marie
Curie advised against it, by Loie did it anyway), she blew her eyebrows off
while experimenting once, etc.
The point of this being that as dancers and performance makers we don't have
to be limited in our abilities, talents, or explorations--we can be
technologically savvy as well as choreographically keen, tinkerers as well as
twinkletoes. the main limit, as usual, being $$$. But certainly not
intellectual ability.
it is a lot more difficult, of course, when you can't actually play with the
physical materials of construction, instead are mostly limited to
manipulating different forms of information. However, as
we-who-are-reading-this know, manipulating information digitally or otherwise
is becoming second nature, and it has become its own craft, so that shouldn't
stand in our way much longer...
Clarinda Mac Low
<<it's the KISS principle>>