Since 1972, internationally recognized Japanese-born choreographers and dancers Eiko & Koma have created a unique and riveting theater of movement out of stillness, shape, light and sound. Emerging from postwar Japan, this duo evokes power and myth. The dance concert will feature Raven – the centerpiece of Eiko & Koma's three-year Retrospective, a raw, hand-crafted landscape that deals with hunger for nourishment and intimacy. The concert will also include Night Tide and White Dance – revived as part of the Retrospective Project, the first piece that Eiko & Koma performed in America.

These concerts are a part of Eiko & Koma's multifaceted Retrospective Project, which includes visual art installations and video work as well as dance performance. Visual and performing art curators are working in close collaboration with Eiko & Koma to examine almost forty years of collaborative history. This examination will inform Eiko & Koma's later work and provide other established dance-makers with perspectives on continued relevance and vitality. Raven, developed in 2009, is the performative centerpiece of the project and will be presented in each host city in a slightly different form, according to the site. Using a handcrafted, burned and scorched floor and backdrop, Eiko & Koma will present the actual or metaphorical "smell" and "residue" of living and dying, familiar from their upbringing in postwar Japan. Other performance aspects of the Retrospective Project included a new "living" installation commissioned by the Walker Art Center and the revival of past performance works such as White Dance.

Not only are Eiko & Koma dancers and choreographers, they are also visual artists, sound designers and writers. Eiko & Koma have created a visual art exhibition, Time is Not Even, Space is Not Empty, which they will install in gallery and museum spaces, including the Walker Art Center. The Walker will publish a Retrospective catalog including essays contextualizing Eiko & Koma's work within the fields of dance and visual art. Eiko & Koma are also creating a series of thematically edited video works that will be shown in conjunction with workshops and panel discussions. Eiko & Koma's website will be further developed to offer online access to various aspects of the project.

"There is no one like these two dancer-choreographers. Theirs is the intensity of strong, white light, exhausting but beautiful."
— Jennifer Dunning, Dance Magazine

"As much of a tour de force as we have come to expect of these distinguished artists, who remain in the forefront of contemporary dance by virtue of their daring, imagination and originality... The power of their work derives, aside from the prodigious muscular and rhythmic control of the performances, from the uncompromising purity of their vision."
— Alan M. Kriegsman, Washington Post

Other Events and Components of Eiko & Koma's Miami Residency

Panel Discussion: Wednesday, February 9, 2011, 7:00-8:30pm, Free, Albion Hotel, 1650 James Avenue at Lincoln Road, Miami Beach – Influence of Butoh on Art in North and South America, Panelists: Helena Thevenot, Celeste Delgado, and Eiko & Koma
Delicious Movement Workshop: Saturday, February 12, 2011, Free, 11am-1pm, New World School of the Arts, 25 NE 2nd Street, Studio D on 7th Floor, designed for all people who love to move or who want to love to move with delicious feelings.
Video Installation: January 31-February 12, 2011, daily, Galleria Del Sol, 1628 North Michigan Avenue (just off Lincoln Road), Miami Beach

Targeted support and targeted in-kind for Eiko & Koma is provided by the Albion Hotel; Bresaro Suites at the Mantell Plaza; Funding Arts Network (FAN); Galeria Del Sol; the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NDP). NDP is supported by lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation, and the Boeing Company Charitable Trust; South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the State of Florida.

Tigertail's 2010/2011 Season is made possible by community partners and supporters including the Albion Hotel; Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation; Barefoot Wine & Bubbly; Albion Hotel; Biscayne Times; Books & Books; Bresaro Suites at the Mantell Plaza; Cafeina; The Children's Trust; City of Coral Gables Cultural Arts Program; City of Miami Beach Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council; Consulate General of the Netherlands; Dade Community Foundation; E.S. Moore Family Foundation; Florida Dance Association; Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council; Florida Literary Center; Galeria del Sol; The Galler Group; Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau; MiamiArtzine.com; Miami Salon Group; Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; Miami-Dade County Public Library; Miami-Dade County Public Schools; Miami River Inn; National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, additional funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Ford Foundation and MetLife Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; National Performance Network with major funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), Altria, MetLife Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation; The New Hotel; Pridelines; Publix Super Markets Charities; Rain Organics; Safe Schools South Florida; Rain Vodka Organics; The Law Office of Linda M. Smith; South Arts; Vortex Communications; WDNA & WLRN FM and many individual supporters.