In 2012, I encouraged French choreographer Emmanuelle Huynh to meet Eiko. Soon after, so I hear, they talked in a coffee shop. They continued talking whenever Emmanuelle came to New York, sometimes moving together a little.

Emmanuelle invited Eiko to perform with her in a gallery of Thalie Art Foundation in Brussels.  Eiko writes “We danced separately on a different floors without much regard to each other until, our paths met. We then continued moving asking each other questions, which we could answer or ignore.”

In 2015, the River to River Festival invited them to engage in a dialogue at Open Studios at Governors’ Island Art Center. Building on what they had done in Brussels, Eiko and Emmanuelle agreed on a score with the primary instruction that they could either: 1) talk or dance; or  2) talk and dance. They invited me to join them as a moderator/time keeper, albeit one with very specific instructions.

Talking Duets in this PLATFORM is, as Eiko writes, “another iteration of this form that tumbles together dance artists of very different stripes.”

Eiko has known the artists involved with Talking Duets for many years and in different time periods and contexts. She writes:

I saw John Kelly’s Love of a Poet in 1990 and again in 2015. I was thrilled when I found out he also lives in Manhattan Plaza. I began talking with Bebe Miller as co-founding members of the Center for Creative Research. I met David Brick years ago in the American Dance Festival and he was an amazing help in my working in Philadelphia 30th Street Station.

Ishmael Houston-Jones, Yvonne Meier, and Elizabeth Streb will join David Brick and Eiko in the second Talking Duets on March 19.

–Judy Hussie-Taylor