Legacy Unboxed: Eiko Otake on the Body Without Outlines

Choreographers Liz Lerman, Joanna Haigood, Eiko Otake, Merián Soto, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar have come together to reimagine how artists share their life’s work. During a May 2025 residency at Jacob's Pillow, these five pioneering women gathered to dance, dream, laugh, cry, plan, and question everything we believe about an artist's legacy. They are each working to make their artistic knowledge, methods, and philosophies available and accessible to future generations in their own unique way. Here, Eiko shares her thoughts about a body "without outlines" and the urgency the women feel about their work in this stage of their lives. She also dances with Merián in an improvised duet reflective of their relationship to one another's work. This work is supported by the ‪Mellon Foundation‬, with additional support from ‪Jacobs Pillow‬. Film by Andrea Patiño Contreras of Rabbit Raccoon; Produced by Erin Donohue and Amy Jacobus of Grounded Growth Marketing.