Year: 2025-2026
DanceForce Member: Glenna Yu
Partnering DanceForce Member: Ivan Sygoda
Artist: Eiko Otake
Community Partner: Bushel Collective
Audience: 89
County: Delaware

Pillow Fort Arts Center, in partnership with Bushel Collective and Woodland Cemetery, hosted movement-based interdisciplinary artist Eiko Otake for a three-day residency in Delaware County, NY, from June 26–28, 2026, supported by NYS DanceForce. The residency introduced Otake’s work to new audiences in the rural western Catskills, while offering longtime followers of her decades-long career a rare opportunity to experience it close to home. For Otake herself, Delaware County was new ground entirely, and she was struck by the depth of openness, engagement, and pre-existing familiarity with her work she found in this small, rural community.

On Friday, June 26, Bushel Collective in Delhi hosted a screening of Otake’s film No Rule Is Our Rule (2022), followed by a screening of excerpts from What is War, Otake’s latest performance work, and an artist talk. Made with longtime collaborator Wen Hui, the film is a story of friendship between two independent female artists and the political histories, personal memories, and body memories each willingly carries. The screening opened conversations that extended well beyond the event itself — one attendee mentioned it primed their experience of the performance the following night, and was still processing questions the film had raised for them days later.

On Saturday, June 27 at 7pm, Otake presented a free, site-specific outdoor performance at Woodland Cemetery in Delhi — a new partnership for Pillow Fort Arts Center. Over 40 audience members gathered on a hillside as the sun set, watching Otake process through the cemetery grounds in this one-time, site-responsive event. For many, it was their first encounter with live outdoor performance, and several audience members were moved to tears.

On Sunday, June 28, Otake led a Delicious Movement Workshop on Pillow Fort’s outdoor dance deck in Andes, from 10:30am to 1:30pm. Offered on a sliding scale ($5–$35), the three-hour workshop drew participants of all levels, including several who traveled over an hour specifically to attend — a sign of both Otake’s reach and the appetite for this kind of work in the region.

Across the three events, the residency drew approximately 80–90 community members. More importantly, it sparked dialogue, reignited old connections and forged new ones, and confirmed that there is real appetite in Delaware County for this kind of work, and momentum worth building on.