ABSTRACT
Eiko Otake was born in Japan and was a law and political science student when she decided to leave the university. She went to study with Tatsumi Hijikata and soon thereafter with Kazuo Ohno, two originators of Butoh (the avant-garde dance form devised in postwar Japan that taps ancient, primordial roots and tends toward dark and intense imagery). At Hijikata’s studio Eiko met her partner and future husband, Koma Otake, with whom she has choreographed and performed ever since. In 1972 Eiko and Koma left Japan and traveled together to Europe where they studied with German expressionist dancer Manja Chmiel, further nourishing the stark, imagistic source of their dancing. They came to America in 1976 and stayed.
