Tom's Life Bits

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===== Eiko & Koma June 30, 1999 =====

//Husband and wife duo mesmerize//

**SUSAN BROILI**

//June 30, 1999//

Who would have thought a theater full of people could be so quiet. Even the coughs were few and far between. No discernible shifting in seats could be heard except one time when a woman near me leaned over and the creak of her seat sounded deafening. I didn't hear any snores either, so I'll have to assume that like me, others had been drawn into the slowed-down world of Eiko & Koma. This husband-and-wife duo performed their world premiere of "Snow," commissioned by the American Dance Festival through the Doris Duke Awards for New Work. The program also included their 1998 "Pulse" seen for the first time here.

Eiko & Koma transformed the Reynolds Theatre stage into a snowy landscape, but not one that would prompt such Christmas tunes as "Jingle Bells." There was no dashing through the snow. Instead, they crept.

They may move slowly but it's an active slowness, like a tree, with all sorts of activity - including transforming light into life - going on inside. This requires great mental and physical control. Those who can enter this world may experience the focused-but- alert, expansive, timeless state of meditation and emerge feeling energized, relaxed and refreshed. At least, that's how their work affects me.

In "Snow," white flakes fell the entire 45-minutes onto a snowy field that covered much of the stage, setting the mood for incremental movements accompanied, for a long time, only by silence and then by what sounded like Japanese folk music before returning to quietness. While Eiko & Koma sometimes appear as part of the non-human natural landscape, in the new work, they are definitely human. They're upright, for one thing - something they aren't very often. The last time I saw them upright on stage, they were upside down and hanging by their toes from a chain-link fence.

Eiko appears first, wearing a cream-colored kimono with butterfly sleeves, and ever so slowly, like winter in Siberia, crosses the stage. Feet firmly planted like the roots of an ancient tree and as slowly as growth, she leans way out to one side. In another posture, she lifts her arms and the diaphanous sleeves look like moonlight through dried birch leaves.

You would think that this pace would give the audience time to see everything that happens, but, to their credit, this duo manages some surprises - such as the first time Koma appears. Maybe he was in the shadows all along, or perhaps he moved slower than the speed of light to get there. Suddenly, we see him, in a black kimono, behind Eiko, with only the profile of his face illuminated. He doesn't so much partner as tend her, as though he were a helpful, ancestral spirit and leaves her curled in the sleep of centuries.

In "Pulse," wind stirs brown, dried weeds on a snowy, narrow bank stretched the length of the stage. It takes a while to actually spot Eiko and Koma, bodies covered with clumps of snow and weeds. Eiko wears a white gauze over her head. She moves first, raising her back, then lowering into the landscape. A Japanese stringed instrument playing a poignant melody as well as mist, rising like smoke, contribute to a mood of both being part of the natural world and trying to escape from it.

They struggle separately, then together. Koma shouts one guttural sound of frustration. He rises with Eiko's leg stretched up his back, her toes holding on, only to fall back down. This dance ends as it begins as dancers merge with the snowy field.
Eiko and Koma: Their almost 30-year collaboration began as an experiment, then developed into an exclusive partnership
SUSAN BROILI
June 27, 1999

Talk centered on what kind of snow bags to use as the married duo Eiko (she) and Koma (he) worked on their new dance, "Snow" earlier this week. They perform the American Dance Festival-commissioned world premiere, along with "Pulse," Monday through Wednesday in Duke University's Reynolds Theatre.

"The argument never ends until we try both ways," Eiko said of decisions on the snow bags and other elements. "It's good to keep the discussion short."

Both sat in the theater to get the audience's perspective on the set.

"Snow man!" Koma called to a crew member on stage. "How can we have snow in the summer in North Carolina?" Koma said.

"It's almost cold enough, anyway," Eiko said.

"It's a snow year," Koma said, referring to the snow that also fell in Martha Clarke's "Vers la flamme" that premiered last week at the ADF.

Known for their slow - as in glacial - way of moving through a theater landscape evocative of nature, the Japanese-born duo have performed only their own work since leaving the avant-garde Tokyo company Tatsumi Hijikata in 1972. They were law and political science students when they had joined the troupe in 1971. Their almost 30-year collaboration began as an experiment, then developed into an exclusive partnership and subsequent marriage.

They worked for a time in Germany with Manja Chmiel, a disciple of Mary Wigman and lived in Amsterdam for two years and toured Europe, before giving their first American performance, "White Dance," in 1976.

Now, they're permanent residents of New York, where they perform regularly and offer their Delicious Movement Workshops.

She and Koma were enjoying having a whole week to create the final version of their new work. Their sons, age 11 and 14, will join them here.

Eiko spoke of how hard it is to make a living as dancers, but that she and Koma don't want to do anything else. "We're very happy because we do what we want to do."

Eiko spoke about their new work.

" 'Snow' is a very poetic piece. Not so much about social concerns. It's a very quiet scene of snow falling," Eiko said, as she sewed her "Snow" costume - a kimono-inspired, cream-colored garment with flowers.

But don't expect the traditional landscape of snow-covered mountains and fields, she said. "It's not a Christmas scene. We're not dancing 'Nutcracker.'"

Her own imagination, experiences in Japan, as well as Asian folktales about animals visiting people on snowy nights informs the work - but not in any direct way.

On snowy nights in Japan, people tell stories. "It is more of the time of hearing some noise that isn't there, of spirits visiting the house when it's snowing," she said.

"Every thing I say now may change by next week," she said of the premiere.

Unlike "Snow," which uses the entire stage, "Pulse" is performed on a "snow-covered" platform accented with dried, brown flowers.

"It's very beautiful, kind of sad. We are there. We can't escape. It's a cutting board," she said.

Both works reflect the duo's aesthetic.

"Obviously, we're interested in relating to the natural environment. Movement is very simple. The set is very simply design even though it takes forever to manufacture it," she said.

She might make five costumes and wait until the lighting design to see which one looks just right. "Lighting is probably the most important theater craft."

As for subject matter: "I always choose the subject matter I feel people can relate to. Everybody knows what a river is, what wind is," she said.

The duo returns in September to perform "River" again in a creek in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. They first did the dance here during the 1996 ADF season. This year, they may have to wear wet suits because the water will be colder, she said.

Eiko & Koma have performed many times in the 21 years the ADF has been in Durham and many audience members have become accustomed to their often very slow - almost imperceptible - movement. "They don't expect us to be jumping high in the air," she said.

And, while many people allow themselves to slow down enough to enter these dancers' world, some don't - or can't.

"I'm not trying to please everybody. There is no obligation to enjoy it. If they don't like it, they just don't like it," she said. "It is important to dance about the things we like to dance about.

While drawn to the natural world, living in New York, they don't get to spend too much time in nature. "It's the conflict of our time that has pushed us more to work on nature pieces," she said.

She compared their work to an apple tree. "It looks simple but the organization is very complicated but the apple tree doesn't necessarily show it to us.

"We're still experimenting, but it's not from A to Z. We go slowly there. The tree doesn't move that fast," she said.

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