Mourning (2007) excerpt

Eiko & Koma are collaborating with the celebrated avant-garde pianist Margaret Leng Tan on an evening-length work, Mourning. The work will premiere at Japan Society in New York October 18-20, 2007 as part of the commemoration of Kazuo Ohno's 101st birthday and the 100th anniversary of Japan Society itself, which in 1976 hosted Eiko & Koma's New York City debut.

These three middle-aged artists are all first-generation Asian-Americans. Having been influenced by each other's work for more than two decades, these idiosyncratic spirits will share the stage for the first time. For them, Mourning is a grieving not only for man's cruelty to man, but a remorse for the pain that humans have inflicted upon the earth and all of its living beings.

From Ms. Tan's carefully-nurtured, diverse repertoire, the collaborators chose four works that they found the most intense and representative of the theme of mourning -- In the Name of the Holocaust (1942) by John Cage , Merry Christmas, Mrs. Whiting (1982) by Bunita Marcus (piano, toy piano), and Litania (1973) and A Gate Into the Stars (1982) both by Somei Satoh. The movement and the music exist independently with no attempt at synchronization. Inspired by Ms. Tan's singular musicality and intense commitment to her repertoire, Eiko & Koma will revisit their own repertoire, Fur Seal (1977), Tree ( 1988), Tree Song (2004) and Offering (2002) in particular, to continue their investigations. Together Ms Tan and Eiko & Koma will delve into images associated with dislocation, death, mourning and intimacy previously explored by these artists in their long careers.

By sharing their independent aesthetics, Ms. Tan and Eiko & Koma hope to fuse dance and music in ways that foster both empathy and solitude.

The stage set is created by Eiko & Koma and lighting is by David Ferri.

eikoandkoma.org

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Film & Animation

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• avant-garde
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