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Bodies

Eiko Otake

2019 00:03:46 United StatesColorStereo16:9HD video
Tags:
City, Eiko Otake: The Duet Project, Distance is Malleable, Performance

Description

In collaboration with DonChristian Jones.

This piece combines two videos. The first part (PRACTICE), draws from three different sets of footage. Eiko and DonChristian Jones' rehearsal footage is accented by scenes of the changing (changed) neighborhood of the west end of Harlem, 125th Street, and clips from Eiko's solo performances elsewhere. The second part (PERFORMANCE: March 29, 2019) is a short excerpt from the performance of Bodies, created and performed by DonChristian Jones and Eiko Otake. The performance happened in the same plaza in which they created the work and practiced as seen in the first part of the video. The PERFORMANCE video also shows how the PRACTICE video was projected onto the cloth Eiko and Don held at the conclusion of their performance. Eiko, who edited the work, hopes these two videos contextualize each other by combining past and present, bodies and place.

Camera by Eiko Otake, Alexis Moh, Pierre Plantevin, and Sumie Yonei
Edited by Eiko Otake.

About Eiko Otake

For an overview of the Eiko Otake Collection and its subcollections, please visit the Eiko Otake Collection Guide.

Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York since 1976, Eiko Otake is a movement-based, interdisciplinary artist. She worked for more than 40 years as Eiko & Koma, but since 2014 has been working on her own projects.  

Eiko & Koma created numerous performance works, exhibitions, durational “living” installations, and media works commissioned by American Dance Festival, BAM Next Wave Festival, the Whitney Museum, the Walker Art Center, and the Museum of Modern Art, among others.  

Eiko has performed her solo project A Body in Places at over 70 sites, including a month-long Danspace Project PLATFORM (2016) and three full-day performances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2017). In 2017, she launched The Duet Project, a multi-year, open-ended series of experiments with a diverse range of artists both living and dead. For the occasion of the 20-year anniversary of 9/11, Eiko presented her monologue Slow Turn, which was commissioned by NYU Skirball and co-presented by LMCC and Battery Park City.

Since 2014, Eiko and photographer historian William Johnston visited irradiated Fukushima several times to create tens of thousands of photographs of her dancing in Fukushima. In addition to presenting exhibitions, the book A Body in Fukushima was published in 2021, and Eiko edited a film of the same name, which premiered at MoMA’s Doc Fortnight 2022. She has created many dance-for-camera works and presented video installations and screenings.

Eiko has been the recipient of many awards including the MacArthur Fellowship, Doris Duke Award, Scripps American Dance Festival Award, and a Bessie’s Special Citation. She teaches at Wesleyan University, New York University, and Colorado College. Eiko's profile photo is by William Johnston.

See also: Eiko Otake: An Interview