Film Screenings / Programs / Series
DANSPACE PROJECT PRESENTS: A BODY IN PLACES: EIKO AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
February 17 – March 23
EIKO IN PERSON FOR ALL SCREENINGS!
This February and March, Danspace Project will showcase the work of dancer, choreographer, and performer Eiko with PLATFORM 2016: A Body in Places. Born and raised in postwar Japan, Eiko has been based in New York for the past four decades. She is renowned in the realm of modern dance as one half of Eiko & Koma, who have created a unique and riveting theater of movement out of stillness, shape, light, and sound, and have performed to great acclaim worldwide. Since 2014, Eiko has been working on a solo project titled “A Body in Places.” She has performed in irradiated Fukushima, major train stations in New York and Philadelphia, and many other unusual sites such as a library, an observatory, and a warehouse.
As part of this special Platform, Anthology welcomes Eiko as guest-curator of a film series showcasing movies that have influenced her work and that speak to her chosen theme. Encompassing narrative films such as THE BURMESE HARP, KANAL, and THE NAKED ISLAND, as well as several rarely-screened documentaries, the series pairs each feature film with short works by Eiko, Eiko & Koma, and John Killacky, as well as with “Where She Has Been,” short excerpts shot and edited by Alexis Moh that document the “Body in Places” project since its inception.
The films and videos in this series illuminate bodies in particular places. How are humans conditioned by the characteristics of places? How do we contribute to and survive the characteristics of places? How do people move from one place to another, and by doing so, how do they leave traces and residues in the places they leave behind?
Danspace Project’s PLATFORM 2016: A Body in Places is a month-long multidisciplinary program that will illuminate and expand on Eiko’s solo project of the same title. In addition to this film series, the Platform will include Eiko’s daily solo performances at various locations in the East Village, guest artist performances, installations, curated talks, a poetry reading, a 24-hour exhibition in Danspace Project’s home at St. Mark’s Church, a book club, movement workshops, and a catalogue. For more information, visit: www.danspaceproject.org
The BODY IN PLACES film series is co-presented by Danspace Project and Anthology Film Archives, and curated by Eiko, who is also the author of all the film descriptions below. Eiko is grateful for the assistance of Alexis Moh throughout the planning and presentation of the Platform. Special thanks as well to Lydia Bell and Judy Hussie-Taylor (Danspace Project) and to Kanako Shirasaki (Japan Foundation). The screening of MINAMATA: THE VICTIMS AND THEIR WORLD is co-presented with Japan Foundation.
