Two Girls Downtown Iowa @POOL2021: Elaine Summers, Kiori Kawai, Thomas Körtvélyessy Zionskirche, Berlin - September 9, 2021
Kiori Kawai & Thomas Körtvélyessy first met and danced together at Elaine Summers Dance & Film & Web Company 2007, in Elaine’s Hidden Forest at Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Between 2010-2014 they danced together virtually in Elaine Summers’ Improvisation with Sun, Moon & Stars via Skype as a part of her Skytime series, with Kiori dancing in New York/Porto (Portugal) and Thomas livestreaming from Rotterdam/Schiedam in the Netherlands. Towards the end of January 2021 Kiori suggested to Thomas that they dance together online for Elaine’s upcoming Birthday. This became an entire online event, A Birthday for Elaine, with many, many more contributors. Both dancers joined with Ione and an improvised online chorus to realize an online version of Elaine’s Crow’s Nest. Later in May, Kiori invited Thomas to participate in a dance video in support of those fighting for their freedom in Myanmar (Burma) The result was WITH YOU On September 9, 2021 they finally met again in person in the Zionskirche (Zion’s Church) in Berlin, where POOL was showing Elaine’s Two Girls Downtown Iowa as an installation. The same afternoon the regular organist of the church was practicing. Visual artist Jean-Ulrick Désert came by to visit. Both dancers had not seen each other directly since 2015 ... Thank you so much Wibke Janssen and Sarah Möller, the artistic directors of POOL, for arranging with Zionskirche that we could meet there, and the kind people at the church for your hospitality. Special thanks to Yoshiko Chuma for bringing Elaine and her work to this festival in Berlin - Herzlichen Dank!
full version Kiori & Thomas (1 & 2)
solo Kiori	solo Thomas
Links/Back to: Elaine Summers at Zionskirche Berlin 2021 POOL Shine 2021 Kiori Kawai Thomas Körtvélyessy Beautiful Intermedial Event at Zionskirche 2018 (link in German) Become a supporter of the restauration of Zionskirche (link in German)