The New York-based arts icon was a pioneer in multimedia stagecraft and modern dance history, and his works have a contemporary feel that belies their age. In hindsight, some even appear prophetic.

Audiences can judge for themselves when Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company opens its 2008-09 season with a reconstruction of Nikolais' 1965 work "Tower" as part of its ongoing effort to preserve and present the dance-theater masterpieces of Nikolais, who died in 1993.

"Nik's works are still so timely," said Joan Woodbury, Ririe-Woodbury's co-founder and managing director. "It's like they were created tomorrow, instead of 50 years ago."

"Tower" is a case in point. In this piece, dancers manipulate scaffolding rails to create various dramatic scenarios, babbling incessantly all the while. Eventually, they form a community and build a spectacular tower that ultimately falls in chaos.

The unusual work references recurring cycles in the history of the human race. But, it also seems to predict events that happened long after its conception. It resonated so eerily with the events of Sept. 11, 2001, that earlier plans to revive it were delayed until now.

"The piece is a metaphor about the end of a certain place in time," said Tito Dal Saz, who danced in Nikolais' company and came to Salt Lake City to teach the work to Ririe-Woodbury dancers. "It has an element of commentary on society. It's very contemporary - about politics, crisis and catastrophes. Maybe this will be shocking to some people, but the idea is to make sure the audience has been engaged."

One startling element of "Tower" is Nikolais' requirement that dancers speak in the piece - an unusual challenge for Ririe-Woodbury's dancers.

Dancers are not shy about using their bodies, said Elizabeth Kelley, an Alaskan starting her third season with the company. Using voices onstage is different.

"For some of us, that's why we became dancers - because we didn't have to speak," Kelley said.

Any self-consciousness dancers were feeling was worn away as Nikolais' associate Murray Louis taught them how to warm up their voices, develop characters, breathe correctly, project their words and save breath and energy for climaxes in the piece.

"I felt like I was in an actor's workshop," Kelley said.

That feeling is an appropriate one, according to Woodbury. "[Nikolais' work] was called dance-theater for a reason," she said. "Nik was concerned about the whole space of the stage - the dancers, the lights, colors, costumes and sound. He made stage dramas."

Kelley worried at first that while trying to give birth to a character, she might create a caricature instead. Practice helped.

"After doing it awhile, you feel like you've been through the experience of being in this community working together to build this tower," she said. "And all of a sudden, everything you've worked for comes tumbling down, and you can't do anything about it."

Kelley, 25, hopes that people of her generation will be moved and intrigued by "Tower's" political overtones.

"It's an election year, and young people of my generation are trying to get involved," she said. "This is one thing I can do - to be inside of this and perform it for an audience. I think it will get people to think about the world they live in, their community and how they live in their day-to-day lives."

For Woodbury, watching young dancers discover Nikolais' work is sweet recompense for her decades of work in the field of modern dance.

"It's so rewarding at the end of my career to work with Tito and Murray to keep these dances alive," she said. "Nik was so far ahead of his time that his works are still timely."