Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces

9. Eiko Otake

9 Eiko Otake Eiko Otake, of the well-known group Eiko & Koma, has been performing site works on and off since the 1970s. Since 1995, Eiko & Koma has actively conceived and performed many site-adaptive pieces that attempt to integrate landscape and body. Their site works grace rivers, cemeteries, and museums around the globe; they inspire audiences of varied nationalities through their dances that verge on ritual. Eiko and Koma Otake were awarded 1996 MacArthur fellowships, the 2004 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award, the 2006 Dance Magazine Award, and the first United States Artists Award. Eiko Otake is one of 11 founding artists of the Center for Creative Research (CCR) and a CCR resident artist at Wesleyan University. Otake spoke with Pavlik from her home in New York City on October 6, 2005. An Interview with Eiko Otake CP: You and Koma have created a significant amount of work both on site and in theaters. Will you talk a little about what differentiates your work in the theater and on site? EO: Every work performed in a place, even a theater, calls for some kind of preparation, an awareness of the specifics of the place. So whether indoor or outdoor, I regard our performances as both site-specific and time-specific to a degree. CP: Could you discuss your choreographic process? EO: We have a framework for the choreography such that performances with the same title deliver more or less the same content, but our choreography is often not set in detail. We have somewhat of a ground design, which comes along with the concept and subject of the piece. For example, in River, 180 Eiko Otake we become part of the river. We are born, bloom, and die in a river. This is the concept of the piece. For the design, we come from upstream with driftwood and then float downstream with driftwood, leaving the audience with only the river. But we adapt the piece to the space we are in; sometimes this requires many changes to the basic design. We always try to seek a deepening of the relationship between the site itself, the concept of the work, and our style of moving. CP: How do you choose sites? EO: In New York, where we live, we can visit a site many times and take a whole year to imagine ourselves in it and prepare. But when we are on tour, the situation can be quite different. We do not have the same kind of control. But we always participate in choosing the site. We don’t just perform where producers dictate. We correspond with the producers about what we want and need, and then they choose several sites for us to consider. When we arrive, we examine these sites and choose the final one. The process is a dialogue with the producers about our conceptual or technical needs and their Figure 54. Eiko & Koma float downstream at the end of River (1995). Photo by Philip Trager. 181 An Interview/Feeling Wind, Feeling Gaze logistical needs. There have to be common desires and strategies when you are presenting site work. There are also basic considerations: the accessibility of the site, the safety needs of the audience and staff, the availability of electricity , and the legality, whether it is legal to perform there and what is allowed to happen there. We have to research and discuss all of this in advance. We enjoy this kind of collaboration. CP: Have you ever been in a position where none of the sites that were offered felt right? EO: Oh, yes, many times. CP: So what do you do in that situation? EO: We just do our best, meaning we put forth our best effort within the given time and choices. We are not necessarily looking for a place that is just right. We are looking for a place that is workable. This is another reason we really prefer to have our own structure and concept because we are looking for ways we can bring something to a place rather than just being inspired by the place. Then when we get there, we will de-prepare and re-create. That is a joy of site work. CP: After you decide upon a site, what draws your focus initially? EO: Let me give you an example. For our pieceRiver, producers have already looked for a site with water that matches our requirements...