Eiko will present her ongoing solo project, A BODY IN PLACES, on Governors Island and Wall St. as part of River to River Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Who: Eiko Otake
What: River to River Festival
Where: Governors Island, Wall Street
When: Sunday, June 19, Nolan Park, Governors Island, 4:30; Tuesday, June 21, 5:00, and Wednesday, June 22, 2:00, Wall St. at Broad St.
Why: Following an injury to her longtime partner, Takashi Koma — the pair have performed as Eiko & Koma since the mid-1970s — Eiko Otake set off on an ambitious solo project, A Body in Places, in which she performs both indoors and outdoors, moving slowly in white makeup and a sackcloth-and-ashes-style kimono, through public spaces around the world, including in and around the new Fulton Center and other locations in Lower Manhattan, at 30th St. Station in Philadelphia, in the Wesleyan University library, next to a highway by a government building in Hong Kong, in the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral in Santiago, Chile, and at Fukushima, which was witnessed only by a photographer. On June 19 at 4:30, as part of the River to River Festival, Eiko will perform “A Body on Governors Island” in Nolan Park, on the historic military island that was the former home of the Army and the Coast Guard. On June 21 and 22, she will be in the heart of the Financial District, on Wall St. at Broad St., for “A Body on Wall Street.” Her powerful, emotional performances comment on her specific surroundings while also engaging fans and passersby who don’t quite understand what is going on, which is always part of the enjoyment.
Spanish writer-director Carlo Saura celebrates the history and tradition of Argentinian music and dance in the joyous documentary Argentina. The eighty-four-year-old Saura, whose previous films include Carmen, Tango, El amor brujo, and Flamenco, Flamenco, and production designer Pablo Maestre Galli built stages in a vast, empty barn in La Boca barrio of Buenos Aires City to honor such local and regional art forms as Zamba, Vidala, Chacarera, Malambo, Copla, and Chamamé. Using archival footage, silhouette-creating scrims, mirrors, and live projections, Saura and cinematographer Félix Chango Monti follow a series of set pieces with no narration or explanation, creating a simple and beautiful record of Argentinian music and dance. Among the lovely performances are pianist Horacio Lavandera playing Carlos Guastavino’s “Bailecito,” “Bagualas” featuring Mariana Carrizo, Melania Pérez, and Tomas Lipan, “La Felipe Varela” with Chaqueño Palavecino and Jimena Teruel, “Añoranzas” by Soledad Pastorutti, Metabombo’s “Ritmo de Malambo” with Carlos “Pajarín” Saavedra and Jorge “Koki” Saavedra, and “En el fondo del mal” by Gabo Ferro and Luciana Jury.
