Eiko in Fukushima, 2014. Photo by William Johnston
Event Series
50 Years of Being A Foreigner
Event Series Featuring Eiko Otake
May 7 - May 10, 2026
May 2026 marks 50 years since Eiko Otake began living and working in the United States. Eiko & Koma first performed at the Japan Society (NYC) on May 6, 1976. Fifty years later, hosted by the Heritage Museum of Asian Art, Eiko returns to Chicago with multiple presentations. This event series is presented in collaboration with Asian Improv aRts Midwest, Japanese Culture Center, and Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and is supported by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund and DePaul Humanities Center.
Following their collaboration, Eiko and Koma each presented solo works in Chicago, including performances at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2017. Eiko’s media exhibition project I Invited Myself began at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Galleries, co-curated by Elise Butterfield. Butterfield, together with other SAIC graduate students, also presented Eiko’s solo work They Did Not Hesitate at the University of Chicago in 2021. Most recently, The Duet Project: Distance Is Malleable was presented at Columbia College in 2022.
Eiko has long been connected to Chicago’s performance scene. As Eiko & Koma, their work was presented multiple times at the Chicago MoMing Dance & Arts Center, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago Performances, and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, which also presented Eiko & Koma’s Retrospective Project exhibition in 2011.
Who Do We Carry?
Asian Improv aRts Midwest
May 7, 6 - 8 p.m. | 4875 N Elston Ave, Chicago
Eiko will lead a special workshop and conversation with participants. How do we carry memories of different lands, upbringings, and voices? Our bodies are both ancient and contemporary, and in that, how do we meet others and how do we carry others with us? In this workshop, participants will explore talking bodies and listening bodies. How do we carry different voices within us from our families and other lives and influences? How do we move and converse with others, with and without words? How can we create a sustainable culture of sustainable peace? No previous movement or art-making experience necessary. Come with an open mind and willingness to share generously with others.
50 Years of Being a Foreigner:
Special Screening and Activation
Chicago Cultural Center Claudia Cassidy Theater
May 9, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. | 78 E. Washington St., 2nd Floor North
On May 9 at Chicago Cultural Center Claudia Cassidy Theater, Eiko will present a multi-media event that combines dance, video projection, and storytelling. She will share her five decades of an artist’s journey in America that began in May 1976. She considers herself an eternal “foreigner” and a performance maker, not a choreographer or a dancer. Videos she edited and prepared for this presentation will include seminal works by Eiko & Koma, her solos in public sites, and her recent collaborations.
Delicious Movement Workshop
Chicago Cultural Center Dance Studio
May 9, 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. | 78 E. Washington St., 1st Floor North
Delicious Movement Workshop is NOT a dance class but a movement class that is designed for all people who love to move or who want to learn to move with delicious feelings. The workshop is emphatically noncompetitive and appropriate to all levels of ability. Starting with slow floor work, Eiko will lead the participants through moving with images, memories, articulation, but also with personal taste and flexible discipline to suit their own moving body. For many people, seeing movement intimately and being seen moving can be a transformative experience. Through the workshop, Eiko will share her principle thoughts: “Time is Not Even; Space is Not Empty,” “Metaphorical Nakedness,” and “Body-based Democracy.” Free and open to the public.
50 Years of Being a Foreigner:
A Conversation Between Eiko Otake and Tatsu Aoki
Heritage Museum of Asian Art
May 10, 2 - 4 p.m. | 3500 S Morgan St, 3F, Chicago
In this conversation, we will explore the underground art scene in postwar Japan during the 1960s and 1970s, a time marked by overlapping waves of political movements, social unrest, and student protests, when tradition was actively questioned and reimagined. Through the voices of Eiko Otake and Tatsu Aoki, both of whom came of age and were deeply engaged in that moment, we will hear firsthand reflections on this dynamic and turbulent period. Having moved to the United States in the 1970s, both artists went on to play significant roles in shaping experimental and cross-cultural art scenes since. Together, they will reflect on their formative experiences and consider a central question: what is the role of the artist in times of profound social and cultural change, back then and now?
Eiko Otake
Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York since 1976, Eiko Otake is a movement-based, interdisciplinary artist. From 1972–2013, she worked exclusively as Eiko & Koma performing their own choreography, earning awards from MacArthur, United States Artists, American Dance Festival, Dance Magazine, and the first Doris Duke Artist Award.
Since 2014, Eiko has been directing her own projects. A series of site-specific solo work,
A Body in Places, became the subject of her 2016 Danspace Platform that brought her a Special Bessies Citation, an Art Matters and the Anonymous Was a Woman award.
A Body in Fukushima brought Eiko and historian/photographer William Johnston repeatedly to Japan's irradiated landscape, producing presentations, exhibitions, films, and a book. In the Duet Project (2017-), Eiko collaborates with Ishmael Houston-Jones, Joan Jonas, DonChristian Jones, Iris McCloughan, Beverly McIver, and Mérian Soto.
I Invited Myself (2022-) presents exhibitions and screenings of her media works. Wen Hui and Eiko co-created a film No Rule is Our Rule and a performance work What Is War, which premiered at Walker Art Center and toured to BAM’s Next Wave Festival. www.eikootake.org
Events
Thu, May 07Asian Improv aRts MidwestEiko Otake will lead a participatory workshop exploring how our bodies carry memory, voice, and lived experience. Through movement and conversation, participants will engage with “talking” and “listening” bodies, reflecting on how we connect with others across differences.
Sat, May 09Chicago Cultural CenterEiko Otake presents a multimedia performance combining dance, video projection, and storytelling, reflecting on her five-decade journey in America since arriving in May 1976 as an “eternal foreigner.”
Sat, May 09Chicago Cultural Center Dance StudioDelicious Movement Workshop is NOT a dance class but a movement class that is designed for all people who love to move or who want to learn to move with delicious feelings. The workshop is emphatically noncompetitive and appropriate to all levels of ability.
Sun, May 10Heritage Museum of Asian ArtIn this conversation, we will explore the underground art scene in postwar Japan during the 1960s and 1970s, a time marked by overlapping waves of political movements, social unrest, and student protests. What is the role of the artist in times of profound social and cultural change, then and now?