Eiko and Koma

Back in 2006 I was lucky enough to study with Eiko and Koma as a part of 'New Voices' at Curious Theatre. I never forgot the experience. I realize that to most, this sort of work probably seems pointless and/or pretentious. The way I look at it is that art either grabs you in your gut, or it doesn't. Watching movement work that is slow and meditative takes patience and a presence of mind. You just have to go there! I'll always remember a phrase from studying with Eiko and Koma years ago: "Imagine you are a tree: both growing and dying.." Tall order. But somehow, it has always made perfect sense to me. Enjoy!!

Click on the link to watch 'River' and check out the Eiko & Koma site...

http://eikoandkoma.org/index.php?p=ek&id=2517


Time Out New York, July 18, 2011
Gia Kourlas

In honor of their three-year Retrospective Project, the Japanese artists Eiko & Koma are making a special stop at Lincoln Center, where, remarkably, they have never performed. In Water, a new, site-specific performance in the Paul Milstein Pool at the complex’s Hearst Plaza, the dancers will expand upon ideas in previous works—Elegy (1984), Lament (1985) and Passage (1989)—but River (1995) is most on their mind. Earlier this month, they reprised the work, which takes place in a body of moving water, at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina. In it, they journey downstream, hinting at the passage of life and time. Their latest experiment in water immersion takes place in a man-made reflecting pool; despite the artificiality, Eiko and Koma’s bodies will give a sense of the natural world by showing the way water can sustain life and, as evident by the horrific recent events in Japan, destroy it.

“Why does Eiko & Koma like water?” Koma asks a few yards away from the pool. “We came out of water in the womb. Often we cry—with pleasure, with sadness. Water is very important. You need it for the muscles and the joints. The title Water is kind of a nickname. What’s more important is the idea of fluidity.”

The flutist Robert Mirabal will play his score live—yes, he too will be in the water—during the run, which will be shown nightly at 9:30pm and coincides with an exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, “Residue: An Installation by Eiko & Koma.” That show, which continues through October, will feature a tea house, along with costumes and set pieces dating to 1978.

Performing in water, the artists say, requires a sense of acceptance. “I think that it’s not about resistance or fighting it,” Eiko says. “It’s where we come from, but we’re not really in it anymore, so it takes a little bit of getting used to. It’s like revisiting an old friend. You have to go slowly.”

For Koma, the sensation is of a gradual saturation of the flesh. “You feel your body start to melt or get softer, like when you pour milk on cornflakes. After five minutes, it gets soggy. The body starts to feel heavier. We become part of the water.”

And as the public watches from dry land, Eiko and Koma become something of a different species. “At the same time, people are looking at something that is very familiar, which is this reflection pool,” Eiko says. “Once we start to perform, I hope that people actually start to feel the water—not just a nicely designed reflection pool. We don’t want to walk to it and get in and walk out. We want to stay there.” Or as her collaborator puts it, “I’m not Koma anymore. Eiko is not Eiko. We are just small beings, the same as fish. That’s the part I really like.”
Eiko & Koma present Water at the Paul Milstein Pool Wed 27–Sun 31.