The magnitude-8.9 earthquake started at 2:46 pm on March 11, 2011. At 3:27pm, the first tsunami hit the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. At 3:36 pm, the highest wave, nearly 50 feet tall, hit the Fukushima Nuclear Plant, stopping all electricity at Reactors 1-4. Reactors 1-3 had nuclear meltdowns starting on March 12. Three hydrogen explosions happened: Reactor 1 on March 12, Reactor 2 on March 14, and Rector 3 on March 15.

With my friend from high school, I visited Fukushima for the first time in August 2011, five months after the nuclear meltdowns. This trip had no purpose other than to see the situation with my own eyes. We were speechless in Fukushima.

In January 2014, photographer Bill Johnston and I travelled to irradiated Fukushima. We followed abandoned train tracks to desolate stations and eerily vacant towns and fields of the evacuation zone of Fukushima Prefecture. Seized by remorse and fear, I could hardly dance until the last stop, Sakamoto Station, farthest from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant.

In July 2014, Bill and I returned to Fukushima. Green leaves covered train tracks and unplanted fields. The growth of plants, however radiated, was overwhelming. We worked on deserted beaches, in a ruined fishing port, and also in the inland, highly radiated, deserted community of Yonomori. I walked in water puddles, buried my bodies in the vines, and later regretted doing so.

Presented by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), I performed my first solo, A Body in a Station, at the Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station for 12 hours over four Fridays. In the performances, I wore the same costumes and carried the same futon and red cloth as I did in Fukushima. The audiences were invited to see a Fukushima photo exhibition at PAFA.

From October 3, 2014 to April 5, 2015, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts presented the first photo and video exhibition of A Body in Fukushima. PAFA director Harry Philbrick curated the show.

From December 4, 2014 to February 14, 2015, a photo and video exhibit of A Body in Fukushima was shown at the Gallery of Contemporary Arts (GOCA) of University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. The exhibition was curated by the gallery’s director Daisy McConnell.

From February 5, 2015 to May 24, 2015, A Body in Fukushima was presented across all three of Wesleyan University’s galleries: the South Gallery of the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, the Davison Art Center, and the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center.

American Dance Festival (ADF) in Durham, NC presented 12 solo performances of A Body in Places at the Cordoba Center for the Arts along with three gallery photo exhibitions at Reynolds Industries Theater, Pleiades Gallery, and the Allenton Gallery and Semans Gallery at the Durham Arts Council. The exhibition was up throughout the festival.

Danspace Project Platform 2016, which focused on my A Body in Places, included a 24-hour photo and video exhibition A Body in Fukushima (starting at 10 pm on March 11 and ending at 10 pm on March 12) in the sanctuary of St. Mark's Church in the East Village, New York City. Scholars and artists gathered for three roundtable discussions, and I performed my solo prior to the opening of the exhibition. From 10 pm on, 24 artists performed at every hour, on the hour, joining in the commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster.

Two years after our last visit, Bill and I returned to Fukushima in August 2016. We visited some of the same places but also entered the areas that had only recently become accessible to the public. Many workers were clearing debris and reconstructing the fields. Escaping the dump-trucks, dust, and noise, we found ourselves working in shrines and woods that cannot be decontaminated.

From October 6, 2016 to March 12, 2017, a photo exhibition of A Body in Fukushima was on view at the center of the Nave of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. I performed not only at the opening but I also frequently during the exhibition. When it did not conflict with church services, I expanded the exhibit by placing the photographs directly on chairs and on top of the ceremonial table.

I directed the interdisciplinary 4-hour event at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Remembering Fukushima: Art and Conversations. It started and ended with my solo, and included many speakers and performers in between. I dedicated the whole event to Atomic Bomb survivor and writer Kyoko Hayashi, who was a close friend and passed away a month prior.

We visited Fukushima for the fourth time in 2017. We went to the towns that were recently announced as "livable" by the Japanese government after years of forced evacuation following the nuclear meltdowns in 2011. Not surprisingly, these towns were only busy with workers engaged in decontamination work and hardly anyone else. We also worked on Ukedo Beach and its neighboring community Yachihata, which are both very close to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant.

A photo exhibition of A Body in Fukushima was shown at the Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield Public Library in Pittsfield, MA and the Doris Duke Theater at Jacob’s Pillow throughout the season. Bill Johnston came to the Pillow and offered a talk, and I performed in all three of these sites.

After our fourth trip to Fukushima in 2017, I edited the 7.5-hour video from all of our visits to Fukushima. I re-choreographed the photographs and added texts and sound. On three Sundays in November 2017, I performed A Body in Places: Met Edition all day at each of the three Metropolitan Museums; the Cloisters, the Breuer, and the Fifth Avenue Building; while projecting this video.

We created another gallery show titled A Body in Fukushima: Recent Works for the South Gallery of the Center for the Arts in Wesleyan University. This exhibition included three large-size photos from our 2017 trip to Fukushima, a 65-minute video I re-edited consisting of Fukushima photos taken during our 2017 visit, and selected still photographs of my performances at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Prints were created during the Rauschenberg Residency from November-December in 2017 where Bill joined me as a fellow.

In 2019, Bill and I returned to Fukushima from December 20 to December 27. We planned to visit all of the locations that we have been to over the course of our last four visits but ended up working in as many as 27 sites that included places we discovered new. During this trip, we made new friends who decided to come back to the areas they had evacuated and were living in caution.

I performed my solo at Cloud Gate Theater in Taipei, Taiwan in August 2019 during the intermission of the world premiere screening of my film A Body in Fukushima. Cloud Gate’s artistic director and choreographer Lin Hwai Min translated the entire text of this two-hour film. Starting with his introduction and ending with a vibrant discussion, the whole event lasted over four hours with an intermission. I was deeply grateful for Lin Hwai Min and the theater staff’s support as well as for the enthusiastic audience members.