Production Details / Press Releases
Megumi Eda performs a solo with live video and music based on personal and imagined memories of her grandmother: a Japanese military nurse.
“One day, I learned from a photo that my Grandma had been a military nurse for Japan in WW2. Later I saw a documentary about a woman who had, like her, been in the war as a military nurse. She confessed the traumatic, and horrific experiences that she had been silent about – and I couldn’t forget these images. Perhaps my grandmother had had a similar experience? I don’t really know…
Please Cry arose from the stories of nurses finally being told it was ok to cry on the day Japan lost the war. The central idea of the new project is to explore the inner transitions of women’s minds as they are forced to make quick decisions in situations of life and death and portray this in an abstract way through the strength of contemporary body language and music.
As my collaborator, I am delighted to work again with composer and sound artist Reiko Yamada.”
Megumi Eda is a Japanese dancer and filmmaker. Her career started with the Hamburg Ballet when she was 17, and over the next 15 years she went on to join the Dutch National Ballet and the Rambert Dance Company where she worked with many choreographers including John Neumeier, Jiri Kylian, William Forsythe, Krzysztof Pastor, Twyla Tharp, Christopher Bruce, Lindsey Kemp, Redha Benteifour, Hans van Manen and David Dawson. In 2004, she moved to New York as a founding member of Armitage Gone! Dance and participated in the collective creation of over a dozen new works as Karole Armitage’s lead dancer. She has also collaborated with Yoshiko Chuma since 2014 as a Performer/Filmmaker. She won a Bessie Award (NYC Dance & Performance Awards) in 2004. Megumi was named one of Dance Magazine’s BEST PERFORMERS of 2015. Since 2019, she has been based in Berlin. Her short film Endless Correspondences in collaboration with Reiko Yamada was selected for the Pool 21 Internationales TanzFilm Festival. Megumi is currently in the steady transition from being a pure dancer to a multi-media performing artist. Her very personal piece Please Cry is her debut as an auteur in Berlin.
megumieda.com
[Source: dock11-berlin.de]
TFB Nr. 1700
Cast & Credits
Concept / Dance / Video: Megumi Eda
Composition / Sound: Reiko Yamada
A co-production by Megumi Eda and DOCK ART funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
Thank you to: Nathan Buck, Midori Kondo, Mamoru Kondo, Aiko Eda, Giorgi Eda, Yoshiko Chuma, Karole Armitage, Bill and Janet Buck, Jenny Haack, Yuko Kaseki, Peter Pleyer, Antoine Reserbat-Plantey, Maciej Lewenstein, and Noa Charles & Mona Aiko Buck
DOCK 11
Kastanienallee 79
10435 Berlin
Tickets: dock11-berlin.de/theater/service/tickets
DOCK 11 / DOCK ART GmbH
dockart@dockart.de
Video Documentation
The video documentation is produced on behalf of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. The purpose of this contract is to document productions in the field of contemporary dance in Berlin. The master recordings are archived by the University Library of the Berlin University of Arts. Copies of the recordings on DVD are available for viewing exclusively in the reference collections of the following archives (at media desks in these institutions):
University Library of the Berlin University of Arts
Mediathek für Tanz und Theater des Internationalen Theaterinstituts / Mime Centrum Berlin
Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT)