Eiko Otake: The Duet Project: Distance is Malleable

Why you shouldn’t miss this!

Treasured for stark, startlingly slow excavations of stillness and shape … hypnotic.

The New York Times

Dance visionary Eiko Otake’s newest offering, Distance is Malleable, is a mutable and evolving series of experiments in collaboration. Negotiating differences of race, age, culture, and religion, she partners with a diverse range of artists, living and dead, to maximize the potential of their encounters. This cross-disciplinary project explores the ever-changing nature of distance, shared place, loss, survival, and memory. The New York premiere at NYU Skirball will include Eiko’s duets with choreographer/improviser Ishmael Houston-Jones, painter/rapper/organizer DonChristian Jones, world-renowned avant-garde pianist Margaret Leng Tan, and poet/performance maker Iris McCloughan. 

Date + Time

About

Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York since 1976, Eiko is a movement-based, interdisciplinary artist. After working for more than 40 years as Eiko & Koma, she now performs as a soloist and directs her own projects. A recipient of numerous honors, including the Doris Duke Artist Awards and MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, she teaches at Wesleyan University and NYU. eikootake.org

CHEAT SHEET

• We love an icon – Eiko has been a momentous mover in modern and contemporary dance landscapes for decades.
• We love a collaboration – after decades as one-half of Eiko & Koma, Eiko is exploring solo work through new partnerships with a thrilling roster of artists. Come and see a master put that “&” to new use, in the New York premiere of this ongoing project.
• After 2 years of “social distance,” we’re ready to explore what distance means to us now – with strangers & intimates – and what it feels like to be in an audience again.

Gallery

Support

Tisch Art & Public Policy, Tisch Dance, Tisch Performance Studies

This presentation is made possible in part by the Harkness Foundation for Dance and the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

NYU Skirball’s programs are made possible with support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by Howard Gilman Foundation, Collins Building Services, Consolidated Edison, Harkness Foundation for Dance, DuBose & Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and Marta Heflin Foundation, as well as our valued donors through memberships and commissioning fund support.