Thursday, November 13, 1997
Flowing ‘River’ fords cultures, transcends time’s passage
DANCE:
Eiko and Koma’s indoor concert illuminates concept of common
origin By Kristi Nakamura
Daily Bruin Contributor
In a time and a city where everything moves toward speed Â
faster cars, faster computers, a faster commute Â
choreographer-dancers Eiko and Koma present "River," which unfolds
slowly and presents a different look at time and life.
Accompanied by the Kronos Quartet, Eiko and Koma perform "River"
at the Japan America Theatre Friday.
"I think that the people who come to hear and see this concert
will probably be amazed at the power of things moving slowly," says
David Harrington, founding member of the Kronos Quartet. "In a way,
we’re almost able to seal every little particle of time. I really
feel that’s part of what the ‘River’ is about, learning another way
to experience the passage of time."
The "River" Eiko and Koma will perform in Los Angeles is an
indoor adaptation of another piece, also called "River," that they
created in 1995. The 1995 piece featured the pair dancing in
various rivers and streams at dusk in the United States and
Japan.
The new piece, informally referred to as "Indoor River" to
distinguish it from the 1995 "River," transforms the
environmentally constructed river into a spiritual and metaphorical
concept.
Eiko and Koma combine fluid movements with their lithe, graceful
bodies to help the audience visualize the concept of the river. The
only piece of scenery maintained from the original "River" is a
wooden sculpture that once floated with them in the water and now
sits stationary on the stage.
"We didn’t mean to bring the outdoor piece to the indoor, but
since we had been thinking for so long about ‘River’ and what the
river means to our life, both in the real sense of the environment
and also the metaphorical way, we started to develop this theater
piece," Eiko says.
The river is seen as a mediator between worlds in many cultures,
including Eiko and Koma’s native Japan. The "Indoor River" can be
interpreted as beginning where the first "River" left off Â
with the performers floating down the stream into the darkness of
the night.
Eiko and Koma do not attempt to recreate the moving water of an
actual river in the theater; rather, they focus on the symbolism of
the water as a place where everyone came from.
"It’s a river of the imagination or of the spirit," Harrington
says. "So it’s interesting whether or not the sort of abstraction,
or abstracting the concept of the river and bringing it onto the
stage, might even make a stronger experience."
Eiko explains that before we were born, our embryonic growth
occurred completely surrounded by the watery womb. She also says
that all of life was once in the ocean as ancient fish, swimming
through the rivers to get to the land. Rivers are the place where
life began.
"The kind of place where we create to share is not so much
Japanese or anything like that but is more our common place where
we used to be in the water, where we struggled, where we grew,
where we developed, where it was scary to develop," Eiko says.
"That’s really the river I’m talking about. It’s not really the
river that flows in the landscape. It’s really the river that
pushes our life into the forwardness."
For the members of the Kronos Quartet, the ideas Eiko and Koma
are trying to communicate are intriguing and powerfully influential
over their music.
"There’s a stillness, but at the same time a strength and
physicalness about their movement, and those are qualities that
(Kronos), for many years, has tried to find in a lot of the music
that we’ve played," Harrington says. "For us to kind of have that
experience personified in their dance right in front of us, it
clearly becomes a part of the way we’re playing at that
moment."
The music the Kronos Quartet plays for Eiko and Koma is an
originally commissioned score for string quartet by Japanese
composer Somei Satoh.
Eiko and Koma wanted the music for their work to be uniquely
appropriate, fundamental rather than purely ornamental. They sought
music that the audience would feel they had not heard on any given
day but may have heard somewhere in the past.
Satoh describes his musical composition as "both a requiem for
loved ones and a reminder that we, ourselves, are little more than
transient river froth."
"River" is a full, evening work, co-commissioned by the Japanese
American Cultural Community Center and the UCLA Center for the
Performing Arts. In 75 minutes, Eiko and Koma and the Kronos
Quartet lead the audience across the boundaries between worlds,
transcending time, as it is familiar in its fast-paced rush.
"There are moments when I don’t have any idea whether the
concert has been 30 minutes or 60 minutes. The normal sequence of
seconds and minutes is just perceived very differently, and I think
that’s something that Eiko and Koma have spent years working with.
It’s one of the true powers of their vision and their work,"
Harrington says. "I would say that this, the ‘River,’ is even
further exploration of how musical and physical time just
passes."
DANCE: Eiko and Koma perform "River," accompanied by the Kronos
Quartet, Friday at 8 p.m. at the Japan America Theatre, 244 South
San Pedro St., in the Japanese American Cultural and Community
Center complex in downtown Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo area. Tickets
are $25, $22 or $9 with UCLA ID. For more information, call (310)
825-2101.
Pentacle
Dancers Eiko (right) and Koma in "River."