Dance is often thought as movement; usually as a series of movements performed by dancers on a stage in front of an audience. In modern, and even more so, in contemporary dance, the traditional setting of a dance performance are often challenged. This is definitely true for "Naked: A Living Installation". The title itself signs a departure from the traditional dance performance. Stillness and the relationship with time is one the main experiences evoked by this work by the Japanese-born artists Eiko & Koma. I believe that the definition "artists" ---as comprehensive of many forms of expression and media--- is more appropriate than dancers. Although the body is the main, but not only, expression medium in Eiko & Koma work.So the performance setting is not typical of "dance": canvas enclosures with feathers, hair, straw. Holes are punched in the canvas allowing the viewer to peek into the performance space, where Eiko & Koma lie naked, with their body painted white. There is an almost complete absence of movement and the viewer is induced by the stillness almost in a meditative state.
Naked studio shot: photo by Anna Lee CampbellIt will be on view at the Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) through Saturday, April 09, 2011
