Scott Nilsson (Bitterman):
CLASS OF 1970
Crayton Junior High SchoolClass of 1970
Columbia, SC
Dreher High SchoolClass of 1974
Columbia, SC
Interlochen Arts AcademyClass of 1974
Interlochen, MI
Crayton Middle SchoolClass of 1970
Columbia, SC
Crayton Elementary SchoolClass of 1968
Columbia, SC
Scott's Story
We would love to hear from you!
Please visit &/or message me on Facebook at /scottnilsson
And would love for you to see my work at /scottnilssonphotographer
(if not on Facebook - please email me: snknilsson - at - gmail - dot - com)
- Scott & Kristy Nilsson (nee Bitterman & nee Dawson)
Life
I've lived in Atlanta, Georgia, for almost thirty-five years. Happily married to Kristy Nilsson, ballet teacher and choreographer, we love hiking, waterfalls, music, reading, films, ballet, theatre, chess and creating together. I have been a professional photographer for almost ten years - and previously directed a nonprofit retirement community in Atlanta, working with seniors for nearly twenty-four years (and at the state and national level to support their needs and interests). I was an accomplished ballet dancer and later an ultra-marathon speedskater. We don't have children, but had a fiesty cockatiel named Shakespeare - and now look forward to a dog-like cat!
I grew up a theatre kid - the son of John Bitterman-Barricks, stage theatre director and Executive Director of the state art's agencies in Indiana and Georgia - and Elisabeth Nelson-Bitterman, artist, lyricist, author and arts educator. Moving south from metro New York at eleven, I got involved in the family business, receiving good reviews for performances in stage musicals - most notably as the Artful Dodger in Oliver. Dancing in Oliver led to a career-passion for ballet under Ann Brodie at the Columbia City Ballet, and Ballet Mistress Fina Suarez, former Ballet Mistress for Alicia Alonzo and the National Ballet of Cuba. My efforts were rewarded with a Ford Foundation Grant, awarded by Violette Verdy, Principal Dancer at New York City Ballet. Studies included School of American Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Harkness House, Indiana University and New York University - under teachers ranging from Michael Lland (Ballet Master, ABT), and Denise Jefferson (School Director, Alvin Ailey), to Colin Russell (Ballet Master, Sadler's Wells in London) - now an international guest teacher based near San Francisco. I studied Tae Kwon Do, fencing, African dance, modern dance, jazz, and tap - with Donna Drake of the original Broadway cast of The Chorus Line, now a Broadway Director. I also studied privately, six days a week, for eighteen months with Mr. Russell, until a plantar wart ended my dance career: I had danced with the Columbia City Ballet for four years, performed with Indianapolis Ballet and toured with Atlanta Ballet - as well as for the IU Ballet Department for three years and at NYU, in addition to pickup dance companies in Manhattan.
College
I ...Expand for more
loved Indiana University from day one. The dorms were over-crowded, so I started my freshman year in a congregate dorm with bunk-beds in a student lounge at Wright Quad... It took several weeks to get a room in Reed, but I was studying so late - I really didn't care. I loved the School of Music, drafting late into the night while I listened to different rehearsals - symphonic, operatic, choral, and jazz - on the intercom system. Early on Sunday morning on the way to the MAC, I sat in the meadow and listened to a solo bagpiper practicing at dawn, all alone in the early morning fog. I was such a serious, studious undergraduate that - even though I entered IU at seventeen, many hall mates thought I was an upperclassman or grad student. I quickly added a second major in the Ballet Department, and the long hours and monk-like existence suited me. I rarely dated, never partied, and stayed focused on school for the first three years. Many all-nighters studying in the Hour House were supplemented with occasional trips to or Bear's Place, or to Indianapolis or Cincinnati to go dancing with friends. My friends, Pete Buchin and Nate Syfrig, disappeared into the bowels of the music building - sacrificing their grades to the earliest internet: developing programs on PLATO, based at the University of Illinois Champagne-Urbana. I remembering marveling when then showed me a touch-screen, in use in 1977! The tech department at the School of Music was one home, and the Ballet Department my second home - but dancing again reignited my passion and commitment to ballet, and that quickly overwhelmed my interest in stage design, lighting and production. Anna Paskevska and Colin Russell were my most influential ballet instructors: Prof. Russell believed in me enough to donate almost two years of daily private instructions to boosting my career entry in New York - and I am forever indebted: thank you, Colin. My favorite academics were Economics and Psychology. My third year at IU, I graduated with honors ("High Distinction") and made plans to complete my ballet degree at NYU.
After touring with the Atlanta Ballet for the summer in 1977, I left early for Manhattan, studying with Joffrey Ballet and at Harkness until classes started at NYU. There, I discovered more teachers who opened new worlds of understanding for me: Nanette Charisse (Harkness) and Bobby Blankshine in Ballet, Kay Cummings in Drama, and Laurin Raiken in Sociology. Hector Zaraspe was setting a piece on me as a guest at Julliard at Lincoln Center when I was stricken with an inoperable medical problem in my left foot - and my dance career was over.
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