Douglas Nielsen

Douglas Nielsen was born in St. Paul, MN.

He studied for a BA in psychology at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. He began to study dance at age 23 at the California Institute of the Arts with Donald McKayle, Bella Lewitzky and Mia Slavenska. He later took summer courses in Long Beach with Kurt Jooss, Betty Jones, and Lee (Becker) Theodore. In the early ‘70s he moved to New York and began dancing in various companies, including the Gus Solomons’, Pearl Lang’s, and Paul Sanasardo’s. In 1973, he began teaching dance.
In 1978, Nielsen moved to Israel and joined Batsheva whose artistic manager at the time, Sanasardo, he had already known in New York. Nielsen danced in the first cast of the following dances: Abandoned Prayer, Lisztdelirium, Dreams (1978); Lunch, Stravinsky Dance Circus (1979). In addition, he also created his first choreography for the company, the duet 3am (1979), in which he danced with Debi Smulian.
In 1980, when Sansarado retired as artistic director, Nielsen quit Batsheva and returned to the US. He lived in New York and in 1982 established his own company – Douglas Nielsen Dancers. Since 1987, he has been representing the American Dance Festival, which commissioned him to China, where he established the first local modern dance company (Guangdong Dance Company). He worked around the world as a teacher and choreographer, including in the L’ecole-Atelier Rudra Béjart Lausanne, Beijing Dance Academy, Palucca Schule in Dresden, and University of the Americas (Mexico). Nielsen also represented the American Dance Festival in many countries such as Korea, Russia, China, Czech Republic, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Mongolia. Nielsen has created over 100 dances for his company as well as for others, including the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company (Salt Lake City), Dances We Dance Company (Honolulu), and the Scottish Dance Theatre (Glasgow).
Nielsen has served as a guest lecturer and choreographer in more than forty universities in the US and worldwide. He has served as a Rufus Putnam Professor in residence at Ohio University, Sage Cole Chair at the University of Minnesota, and guest faculty at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. Currently, Nielsen resides in Tucson, Arizona, where he serves as Professor at the University of Arizona School of Dance.
Nielsen is the recipient of the 2003 Lester Horton Dance Educator Award for excellence in teaching, and the 2007 American Dance Festival Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching.