Eiko Otake

I began to perform as a soloist in 2014 after four decades of duet touring and after a year of preparation and anxiety. Working alone has brought me different fruits and challenges. I feel I am metaphorically more naked. I like the ways people see my body and know that I need their help and empathy. By now I have performed A Body in Places in stations, libraries, galleries, basements, empty houses, even an observatory--non-theatrical spaces where little separates performer and viewer. Performances happen with a mutual, unmediated gaze; I can see the audience as much as they can see me. I look straight into each viewer’s eyes. My frail, wandering body is a constant that can transport observers to many other places. To every venue, I carry photographic and video images of my dancing in Fukushima, Japan, ruined by radiation. Seeing the deep pain human heedlessness has caused people and the environment, I am torn with remorse and anger. Human failure has never been so urgently clear.