The Institute of Dance Scholarship, AIR (Arts Interdisciplinary Research) and the Dance Department at Boyer College of Music and Dance are pleased to announce the Spring 2024 program of the Dance Studies Colloquium. Most events are live-streamed and continue to be free and open to the public.
Eiko Otake Carrying Fukushima in Conwell Theater, 3-4:30pm
A Body in Fukushima is the title of the extensive and expanding collaborative project between Eiko and photographer/historian William Johnston. Eiko first invited Johnston to collaborate on creating photograph works in Fukushima in 2014, 10 years ago. It was at the time Eiko began conceiving her first solo project, A Body in Places, which started with A Body in a Station at 30th Street Amtrak train station in Philadelphia in November 2014 along with the first Fukushima photo exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) which also produced her performances at Philadelphia Station.
In 2014, Eiko and Johnston made two extended visits to the irradiated areas surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, where all residents had been evacuated. They returned to the area again in the 2016 and 2017 summer and found much of the places they had visited in 2014 have been radically changed. New sea walls were built, and many workers were brought in to clear houses and buildings and decontaminate the fields and roads. The only places that were left untouched by bulldozers were shrines and forests. Eiko danced in these places that remain highly irradiated, embodying bitter grief, anger, and remorse. In 2019, they visited Fukushima for the fifth time.
Boyer College of Music and Dance
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