Critical Correspondence

John Vinton on Kei Takei

The CC editors are pleased to share an e-book, Diary of Light: An intimate portrait of Kei Takei’s Moving Earth, by John Vinton with illustrations by Amy Berkman.

Download the e-book as a pdf

Thumbnail sketch by Amy Berkman

John Vinton’s poetic contemplation of Kei Takei’s company Moving Earth covers the period 1974-75, when the company was in rehearsal for Light, Part 9. In the early 1970s John worked as a volunteer and then as general manager of Dance Theater Workshop (DTW). At that time DTW was a small dancers’ cooperative operating out of a second-floor loft on West 20th Street. It was there that John first saw the work of Kei Takei, who had come to the US from Japan in 1967 on the recommendation of Anna Sokolow. In 1975, Moving Earth debuted all nine parts of Light at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a legendary seven-hour performance. Today, Kei is well-known as a master choreographer and self-proclaimed “dance citizen.”

John Vinton, Kei Takei, and Mal Pate at the Leperq Space, Brooklyn Academy of Music, January 3, 1975