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Slow Turn

Eiko Otake

2021 00:41:07 United StatesEnglishColorStereo16:9HD video
Tags:
City, Dance, Death and Dying, Eiko Otake: A Body in Places, Memory, September 11th

Description

On September 11, 2021, Eiko Otake performed at 7am and 6pm at Belvedere Plaza in Battery Park City by the Hudson River, directly west of where the Twin Towers once stood. This video work is from the 6pm performance. 

Eiko & Koma were artists-in-residence in the North Tower throughout the year 2000. In 2002, on this very plaza, they premiered Offering: A Ritual of Mourning with David Krakauer, an internationally acclaimed clarinetist/composer. Offering was produced and presented by Dancing in the Streets with free admission in parks throughout Manhattan. Eiko & Koma later performed Offering in many cities around the world.

Marking 20 years since the 9/11 attacks, and created specifically for this occasion and this site, Eiko’s new piece, Slow Turn, centers on a monologue of her personal memories of that day and its aftermath. She invited David Krakauer to perform short solo pieces to bookend her monologue, with Iris McCloughan as a dramaturg. 

Commissioned by NYU Skirball
Produced by Battery Park City, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and NYU Skirball

Conceived, written, performed by Eiko Otake
Dramaturgy by Iris McCloughan
Camera by Yiru Chen
Edit by Eiko Otake and Yiru Chen

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