Michael Weiss Posted October 5, 2010 Report Posted October 5, 2010 (edited) Psyched for tonight's opening at the Joyce Theater of this amazing Butoh dance troupe. SANKAI JUKU They only tour the USA once every few years. One of a kind experience. October 5-17 Joyce Theater, NYC October 20 Harris Theater, Chicago October 23-24 Power Theater, Ann Arbor October 28 The Granada, Santa Barbara October 30 Barclay Theater, Irvine November 3 Paramount Theater, Seattle November 5-6 Vancouver Playhouse November 9 Memorial Auditorium, Stanford November 11-14 Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco Music by Takashi Kako who made some good records with Kent Carter and Oliver Johnson in the 1970s Over the course of the past twenty years, the work of Ushio Amagatsu for his company Sankai Juku has become known worldwide for its elegance, refinement, technical precision, and emotional depth. His contemporary Butoh creations are sublime visual spectacles and deeply moving theatrical experiences. As one of the premiere choreographers at work in the world today, the arrival of a work by Ushio Amagatsu is a much anticipated event in the dance landscape. HIBIKI Resonance From Far Away Hibiki is one of internationally-acclaimed pieces of Sankai Juku, and award-winning work of unparalleled simplicity and poetic beauty. It was world-premiered at Theatre de la Ville, Paris in December 1998 and has received high reputation for many countries in the world. In May 2001, Sankai Juku performed it at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, which is known as one of main theaters leads contemporary dance in U.K. In February 2002, Hibiki won the 26th Laurence Olivier Award in category of Best New Dance Production, the most prestigious prize of performing arts in U.K. Performed in a dream landscape with whirling costumes, the company of six dancers blends image, sound and performance to create a truly hypnotic dance experience. The first sound heard in the theatre is that of liquid dripping rhythmically from suspended glass urns into 13 concave glass lenses. Lying on the sand ground, dancers uncurl effortlessly from fetal positions under caramel lighting, and weave elemental movements into a delicate show motion dance. Metamorphosing like statues of granite brought to life, dancers pulse through sand and shadow, splashed by glistening ice which suddenly changes into carmine blood. The Dynamic interplay of large and small gestures, accompanied by a lyrical and electronic score by Takashi KAKO and Yoichiro YOSHIKAWA, brings you chemical reaction of arts in the beautiful garden with sands and small water pools –cracking the kernel of the particular to liberate the universal. "A luminous rite -- slow, enigmatic, beautiful!" - The Village Voice "Image after glorious image unfolds in a beautiful environment ... it's as symbolic as you want to make it, and it's as simple as can be." - The Montreal Gazette "A complete theatrical experience of rare beauty and visual power." - The Portland Oregonian Music Takashi Kako, YAS-KAZ, Yoichiro Yoshikawa Dancers Ushio Amagatsu, Semimaru, Sho Takeuchi, Akihito Ichihara, Taiyo Tochiaki, Ichiro Hasegawa Co-produced Theatre de la Ville, Paris (Paris, France), Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center(Fukuoka, Japan), and Sankai Juku (Tokyo, Japan) World Premiere Theatre de la Ville, Paris in December 1998 TOBARI As if in an inexhaustible flux "TOBARI", the first new production to be presented by the Sankai Juku Butoh dance troupe in two-and-a-half years, was performed at the Theatre de la Ville, Paris, in May this year. All performances were sold out, and the performers received curtain calls every night by impassioned audiences. The Le Monde newspaper gave a glowing review of the performance in an article titled "The Cosmic Dance," saying, "The audience could not help but gaze at this soothing philosophical performance." The starry sky that appears silently in front of us, a small galaxy that emerges as we look down, the dry ground, and the shining blue darkness—Ushio Amagatsu uses fewer elements on the stage than in any of his past performances to create a new world with a dense darkness, and flickering, reflecting light. The performance, which lasts one-and-a-half hours, is filled with the sequence of birth, death and rebirth and invites the audience into "the cosmos of life." The emotion changes, the season shifts, and time flows without stopping—Amagatsu audaciously changed his stoic poetic style in his new work, "TOBARI." In this production, Amagatsu fuses the boundaries of seven tableaus in swaying time and space, displaying a metempsychosis within the cosmos of life as a beautiful current that advances in a single direction without stopping. Music Takashi Kako, YAS-KAZ, Yoichiro Yoshikawa Dancers Ushio Amagatsu, Semimaru, Toru Iwashita, Sho Takeuchi, Akihito Ichihara, Ichiro Hasegawa, Dai Matsuoka, Nobuyoshi Asai Co-produced Theatre de la Ville, Paris (Paris, France), Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center(Fukuoka, Japan), and Sankai Juku (Tokyo, Japan) World Premiere Theatre de la Ville, Paris in May 2008 Edited October 5, 2010 by Michael Weiss Quote
Michael Weiss Posted October 7, 2010 Author Report Posted October 7, 2010 The piece TOBARI was quite beautiful. Regretfully the music was good in places and kinda sucked in other places - a little too Phillip Glass-y for my taste. I'm sure the music for HIBIKI is better. For anyone interested in Butoh I highly recommend. Quote
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