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Passage into Tomorrow is IONA's "living art" installation focusing on the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their impact on the West.

This work was originally created in 1994 in response to paper artist Sandy Bleifer’s Hiroshima Memorial Exhibit.  Based on the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the gallery performance piece explores the relationship between paper and skin as the housing of the soul.  Dancers occupy different installations in eerie stillness -- the moment of the bombing frozen in time. 

One dancer is plastered with American newspaper headlines that appeared in 1945 during the bombings. The work develops into movement that depicts the exit of the soul from the body -- perhaps a positive statement on one of the world’s worst disasters.

IONA's Passage into Tomorrow is a powerful performance work that reminds us of the idiosyncratic horrors of war, juxtaposed by the lasting impression of peace.

Here is a review from the Honolulu Advertiser of the last performance of this controversial work, which took place at Mark's Garage in Honolulu, two days before the 9/11 attacks. And here is a review from the Honolulu Weekly.

IONA Contemporary Dance Theatre 
Honolulu's leading independent fine arts dancers and performance artists
http://www.iona360.com

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