After sold-out shows at Japan Society, Armitage Gone! Dance brings You Took a Part of Me to New York Live Arts.

You Took a Part of Me is a hypnotic display of erotic entanglement and unresolved attachment by “punk ballerina” Karole Armitage. Modeled after Noh, an ancient, ritualized Japanese form of dance theater, You Took a Part of Me depicts a woman’s ghost as she revisits her past to reckon with life’s complexities and search for peace.

Framed by an installation that evokes traditional Noh staging, You Took a Part of Me is performed by three dancers who portray the Ghost, her Double, and her Lover. A fourth dancer acts as a transformer, known as a koken in Noh. Set to a haunting composition by Reiko Yamada, the movement traces the curvilinear pathways of classical Japanese calligraphy, turning more jagged and contorted as the piece unfolds. Austere and abstract, yet intensely personal, You Took a Part of Me is a poetic metaphor for transformation and self-realization.

You Took a Part of Me is choreographed by Karole Armitage. The lead role is performed by Armitage’s longtime dancer/collaborator Megumi Eda, with Armitage Gone! dancers Sierra French, Alonso Guzman, and Cristian Laverde-Koenig. The work features a commissioned score by Reiko Yamada, installation and lighting design by Clifton Taylor, costume design by Peter Speliopoulos, and hair design by Danilo.