One-of-a-kind performer
East Village ‘conceptual artist’ Yoshiko Chuma on crossing boundaries
BY BOB KRASNER
For more than 40 years,
one woman has been responsible
for approximately
500 performances involving
more than 1,500 performers in
nearly 50 countries. From her
East Village storefront home Yoshiko
Chuma has been constantly
creating – involving dance,
choreography, fi lm, music,
painting and whatever else she
deems worthy in works presented
by her group, “The School of
Hard Knocks.”
Her performances — which
can range in size and scale from
Chuma doing a solo improvisation
on a NYC sidewalk to her
“Unfi nished Symphony,” which
put 400 performers on a stage
in Japan — have put critics to
the test while trying to describe
her work. Dance Magazine once
posited that “one might call her
a postmodern choreographer,”
but Chuma dismisses the notion.
“I am a conceptual artist,”
she states.
“She has the ability to synthesize
many ideas in a performance,”
notes Jan Schmidt, the
retired curator of the Dance
Division of the NYPL at Lincoln
Center (where Chuma’s archives
are likely headed). She has seen
Chuma perform since the 1980s
and notes that the artist “incorporates
words , music and dance
forms from ballet to traditional
African to post-modern dance
in a signifi cant way, taking it to
a different level than the others.”
Chuma is hesitant to relate
the details as to how she got
there, but will commit to one
fact about her early entry into
performance art: “Everything I
have been is by chance.”
Feeling unfocused in her native
Japan, she took a friend’s
suggestion and came to New
York City in 1976 on a student
visa. By 1979, she had performed
solo in the garden at the
Museum of Modern Art.
The year 1983 saw the premiere
of ‘Five Car Pile-Up’ at
the St. Marks Church, a collaboration
with Christian Marclay.
He provided the soundtrack,
a sound collage for a piece
that involved 63 performers.
The New York Times called it
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
“positively exhilarating.”
Marclay, who worked with
Chuma on numerous projects in
the early 1980s, sums up what
makes her special. “Yoshiko
Chuma is a maverick. Utterly
unique, a ‘one-off,’ as the British
say. Gifted with great personal
force and intelligence, at heart
she has been an experimentalist
and a fi erce explorer with a profound
sense of structure.”
Her collaborators — her
team, as she likes to call them
— have varied over the years.
“Eighty-fi ve percent have become
prominent in their fi elds,”
she claims.
What is certain is that everyone
who has worked onstage
with her has walked away with
more than just memories.
East Village artisté Heather
Litteer, who has a history of
working with Chuma and recently
appeared in “A Blind Eye
Cast Unknowing ” at the Gene
Frankel Theatre, loves being
part of the process.
“Yoshiko is a one of a kind
exquisite being!” she exclaims.
“I love working with her and living
Yoshiko Chuma, center, at the Gene Frankel Theater in 2021.
inside her shows. You never
know what will happen — on a
moments notice, she can change
the choreography or the direction
we could go. It’s thrilling.
She is a force of nature!”
Nicky Paraiso, an actor, musician,
writer, performance artist
and curator who is currently
the Director of Programming
for The Club at La MaMa and
the La MaMa Moves! Dance
Festival, relates that he “can’t
imagine my grown adult life
without the essential lessons
learned from working with Yoshiko
Chuma and The School of
Hard Knocks.” He commends
her “tireless work ethic and brilliant
creativity as well as her
love, care and concern for so
many artists.”
“She is always crossing
boundaries both real and metaphorical,
with a great curiosity
and a burning passion,” he adds.
“She doesn’t rest,” observes
painter Elizabeth Kresch, who
has a longtime family connection
PHOTOS BY BOB KRASNER
with Chuma but only began
collaborating with her three
years ago.
After painting portraits of her
team onstage and off and participating
in the epic “24 Hour Performance”,
Kresch has gotten a
good idea of one aspect of what
Chuma’s constantly evolving
oeuvre is all about. “Her work
is about connection and informing,”
states Kresch. “She wants
people to take away a greater
understanding of humanity —
for people to see each other as
human beings.”
“My projects always have
a deep side,” Chuma muses.
“Conceptually, I know what I
want but I don’t know if people
will get it. Sometimes they are a
success and sometimes not. It’s a
secret journey with an unknown
destination.”
Yoshiko Chuma is on Instagram
@yoshikochuma and will
perform next at Pangaea on Feb.
24. Ticket info is here: showtix4u.
com/event-details/61360
14 February 10, 2022 Schneps Media