Eiko Otake
2020–2021 Artist in Residence (Virtual Studio)
Dance, Performance Art
www.eikootake.org/virtual-studio
Invited by the Center for the Arts, Visiting Artist in Residence in Dance Eiko Otake P’07, ’10 began a virtual creative residency in March 2020. Through her Virtual Studio, Otake shared new work, reflections, and collaborations, expanding her practice beyond choreography to engage social, political, natural, and emotional movement in a time of global disruption.
Residency Highlights
Launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Eiko Otake’s Virtual Studio became a living platform for creation, dialogue, and reflection. Through writings, images, and shared works with collaborators, Otake reimagined her role as an artist—using the studio to observe, respond to, and reach outward toward a world shaped by intersecting social, political, and environmental forces.
During the residency, Otake also premiered a newly edited 75-minute version of A Body in Fukushima, marking ten years since the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. The film draws on hundreds of photographs by historian William Johnston, documenting multiple visits to the evacuated landscapes of Fukushima, including previously unseen images from December 2019. The United States premiere was presented as a special outdoor screening and featured a live performance by Otake with an original score by David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet.
Otake’s long-term collaboration with Johnston has been presented at Wesleyan across multiple exhibitions and performances since 2015, spanning the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Davison Art Center, and Ring Family Performing Arts Hall. In parallel with this work, Otake initiated The Duet Project in 2017, an ongoing series of cross-disciplinary and cross-generational collaborations that continues to inform her expansive approach to performance, history, and collective memory.
About Eiko Otake
Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York since 1976, Eiko Otake is a movement–based, interdisciplinary artist. After working for more than 40 years as Eiko & Koma, she now performs as a soloist and directs her collaborative projects.
