Dance luminaries Wen Hui and Eiko Otake create a complex tapestry of language, movement, and video to share their personal memories related to war.
Wen Hui (b.1960) is Chinese and currently working in Europe. She grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution. Eiko Otake (b.1952) is Japanese and lives in New York. She grew up in post-war Japan. Both are female performers/choreographers, and filmmakers.
In January 2020, Eiko visited Wen Hui in China for a month. It was where the artists began examining the personal memories they hold in their bodies. The pandemic obliged the artists to continue their dialogue at a distance. The process of co-editing a feature-length documentary film, No Rule Is Our Rule, that documented their time together in China, led them to work together physically in the U.S. to co-create this new performance work. During creative residencies at Duke University, Colorado College, and Mass MOCA, the collaborators also uncovered and learned new knowledge about war that continues to affect them deeply.
In this project, Wen Hui and Eiko Otake create a complex tapestry of language, movement, and video to share their personal memories related to war. As they move together, their bodies intimately support and absorb each other’s stories, inviting the audience to consider their own relationship to war on both a historic and personal scale.
Photo Credit: Zhou Huiyin
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We met in 1995 when we both performed and saw each other’s work at the Guangdong International Experimental Theater Festival. We got to know each other better in 1997 and ’98, when Wen Hui spent a year in the U.S. on an Asian Cultural Council fellowship.
In 2020, Eiko had a month-long fellowship to be with Wen Hui in China. We spent every day together and learned about our families’ histories relating to the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), a part of World War ll.
When Wen Hui’s planned visit to New York had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, we met weekly on Zoom, looking at the footage we filmed in China. With Yiru Chen, we co-edited the documentary film No Rule Is Our Rule. This process built the foundation for creating this performance work during residencies in the U.S. earlier this year.
— Wen Hui and Eiko Otake
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The current constitution of Japan was drafted by American civilian officials during the occupation of Japan after World War II. It was adopted on November 3, 1946, and came into effect on May 3, 1947. Not a single word has been changed since.
Article 9 states:
“Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.”
Everyone who taught me about World War II is now dead, but I remember their voices. Article 9 is in my body.
— Eiko Otake
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Dear Eriko Ikeda!
When Eiko visited me in Beijing, she said she wanted to go to the Nanjing Massacre Museum, which surprised me because, though I was never there, I imagined it would be an uncomfortable place for a Japanese person. Her desire moved me and we went there together.
At the site of Lijixiang "Comfort Station” Eiko told me that you have been her friend since your highschool days and that you organized the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery. Eiko also showed me many DVDs you directed, produced, filmed, and edited. We watched them many times.
We realized, many people talk about war, but fewer people talk about the harm done to women in war. I want to share with the audience a story of the “comfort women” by including one interview from your documentary film. But if you don't think it's appropriate, we will not do it. Please advise us. As a Chinese woman, I understand how courageous they are in their old age to come out to state their stories and seek justice. I deeply respect them and your work.
I look forward to meeting you and your colleagues.
Wen Hui
For more information on “Comfort Houses” and “Comfort Women,” please refer to https://www.19371213.com.cn/en/lijixiang/introduction/ and Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace
Special Events
Workshop: Body as a Landscape, Body as an Archive
October 10 | 9:30 - 11:30am
Presented by Velocity Dance Center & Ballet Rituals in partnership with On the Boards
Free Screening: No Rule is Our Rule
October 11, 2025 | 4pm
Studio Theater | Free Screening
Composed from unscripted video diaries filmed in Beijing in 2020, this documentary traces the beginnings of Eiko Otake and Wen Hui’s artistic collaboration, laying the groundwork for What is War.
In the Press
“October Things to Do: Performance” by Julianne Bell for The Stranger | October 1, 2025
“Autumn Arts: Dance“ by Rachel Gallaher for Seattle Magazine | September 11, 2025
“9 Seattle dance performances in fall 2025 you don’t want to miss” by Angela Lim for The Seattle Times | September 8, 2025
“A Memory and an Omen” by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle | April 19, 2025
“War on the Body” by Victoria Looseleaf for Fjord Review | April 17, 2025
“Every War Belongs to You: Wen Hui on What is War” by Rachel Cooper for Walker Arts Magazine | April 11, 2025
“We All Have War in Our Bodies: Eiko Otake on What is War” by Rachel Cooper for Walker Arts Magazine | April 11, 2025
“Eiko Otake and Wen Hui on What is War” by Rachel Cooper for Walker Arts Magazine | April 11, 2025
“An Antidote To Trumpian Hate” by John Killacky | February 7, 2025
About the Artists
Credits
Eiko Otake & Wen Hui | Concept, Choreography, and Performance
Iris McCloughan | Dramaturg
David A Ferri | Lighting Designer
Carina Rockart | Mirror Design
Rich Bresnahan | Mirror Construction
What Is War was commissioned by and premiered at the Walker Art Center.
Co-commissioned by CAP UCLA (UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance), Jacob’s Pillow, and the Colorado College Theater & Dance Department.
What is War was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.
What Is War was created during residencies at Duke University in collaboration with American Dance Festival, Colorado College, MASS MoCA in collaboration with Jacob’s Pillow.
This work and its presentation in the U.S. are produced by INTA, Inc.—Paula Lawrence (President), Allison Hsu (Managing Director), Sean Donovan (Development) and Karl Gossot (Bookkeeping).
