New Dance Series Conceived and Curated by Richard Colton
Produced by Churchtown Dairy
A BODY in CHURCHTOWN DAIRY
Eiko Otako performs at Churchtown Dairy her iconic solo project A Body in Places, the omnibus title of Eiko’s place and occasion specific project that she started in 2014 after working as Eiko & Koma for 41 years. Its scale, contents, and modes of presentation vary radically depending on a community, a hosting institution, a place, each place’s constituency, a season, and an occasion. Central to the project is a drive to explore non-traditional venues and to respond to the innate characteristics of each place. Performing as a soloist, Eiko willfully partners with the particularities of places and viewers and how in turn each place affects her choreography and performance. Her objective is being radically available to be seen and to be heard as a performer and as an artist by diverse audience members. This performance will be the culmination of Eiko’s four-day artist residency at Churchtown dairy.
Created for Churchtown Dairy and Performed by Eiko Otake
Sound Created and Performed by Jeffrey Lependorf
* Suggested Donation at Door ($25 General Admission, $15 Senior and Under Eighteen)
Eiko Otake - 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 performing their own choreography which earned them Guggenheim, MacArthur, and United States Artists Fellowships, as well as the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival and the Dance Magazine Awards. Since 2014, Eiko has been directing her own projects. She has performed a series of site-specific solo work, A Body in Places at over 76 sites. In 2016, Eiko was the subject of the 10th annual Danspace Platform, a month-long curated program that brought her a Special Bessies Citation, an Art Matters Grant, and the Anonymous Was a Woman Award. A Body in Fukushima records Eiko‘s solo performances in post-nuclear disaster Fukushima, Japan. The project has produced a book publication, a feature-length film as well as numerous photo exhibitions, lectures, and performances. In 2017, Eiko launched her multi-year Duet Project, a mutable and evolving series of experiments in collaborations. She has worked with artists David Harrington, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Wen Hui, Joan Jonas, Don Christian Jones, Iris McCloughan, Beverly McIver, Mérian Soto, Wen Hui, and her late grandfather, Chikuha Otake. Her 10-year project, I Invited Myself, is a series of exhibitions and screenings of her media works. Her short and feature-length films have been screened in many film festivals internationally. Eiko will be presented by Brooklyn Academy of Music October 21-25 this fall as part of their acclaimed Next Wave 2025 performance series. A Body in Places
Jeffrey Lependorf is a composer, musician, and visual artist, as well as a certified master of the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute. His music has been performed around the globe—literally, in fact: a recording of his Night Pond for solo shakuhachi was launched into space when the shuttle Atlantis took off on May 15, 1997 and remained for a year aboard the Russian space station Mir. His “Masterpieces of Western Music” audio-course is available through Barnes & Noble’s “Portable Professor” series, as well as for download through audible.com. Music recordings can be found on Ayler, Albany, Sachimay, and other labels. A nationally recognized arts leader, he currently serves as Executive Director of the John Cage Trust, following serving as Executive Director of The Flow Chart Foundation (devoted to the legacy of John Ashbery), and also directs the Art Omi: Music international musicians residency program, a collaborative music-making residency he created.