"SANKAI JUKU" November 17-18, 8 p.m. Royce
Hall, $15 for students
Butoh has come a long way from its days of smothering livestock
on stage. While there will not be any animals tortured on the stage
of Royce Hall this weekend, the tortured faces of the dancers offer
a window into the roots of a now much-evolved Japanese dance
form.
Representing a new generation of Butoh created by its director,
the Japanese dance group Sankai Juku returns to Royce in a UCLA
Live performance on Nov. 17 and 18 for the Los Angeles premiere of
their newest piece, “Kagemi: Beyond the Metaphors of
Mirrors.”
The dance form of Butoh began in Japan after World War II and
was mostly performed in small spaces. Its performances often
portrayed extreme emotion.
“A traditional, early Butoh was more emotionally raw. It
was more violent and much more controversial,” said Alisa
Regas, associate director of Pomegranate Arts, the company managing
Sankai Juku’s current North American tour. “In one of
the classic pieces of Butoh, a live chicken was smothered under the
legs of the dancers.”
Sankai Juku’s new style of Butoh, however, retains some of
the traditional Butoh forms without turning chickens into
McNuggets.
“Sankai Juku has taken an art form, Butoh, and created its
own expression of it,” said Karen Nelson, senior publicist
for UCLA Live.
The group was created in 1975 by director Ushio Amagatsu, who
choreographed, designed, and performs in “Kagemi.”
Amagatsu’s Butoh has been built from the expressionistic and
highly theatrical dance form of the original, but in a less violent
manner.
“They still have the depth of the original pieces, but it
is slightly softer,” Regas said. “Compared to earlier
Butoh, Sankai Juku is larger in scale, more refined and less rough
around the edges. They use Butoh traditions and symbols in a way
that also incorporates Western imagery and Western production
techniques.”
Sankai Juku’s style of Butoh is also a result of
Amagatsu’s residency. He lives half of the year in Paris and
the other half in Tokyo, so the mixing of cultures has influenced
his work. The group premieres its pieces in Paris, where it has
found a large fan base for its work, before touring the rest of the
world.
Amagatsu developed the idea for “Kagemi” from an
installation at an art museum which featured the art of Japanese
flower arrangements. Twenty years later, Amagatsu has incorporated
this inspiration through a ceiling full of handmade lotus flowers
in “Kagemi.”
The type of Butoh audiences will see in “Kagemi,” as
well as other performances of Sankai Juku, is highly technical.
“The dancers are incredibly technically proficient and
disciplined,” Regas said. “Every little finger moves
and you see it. Everything is completely controlled, but at the
same time, their bodies are completely relaxed.”
The technical proficiency is mirrored in the precision of the
set design. The stage is nearly bare, but the minimal set has been
planned with impeccable attention to detail, even down to the sand
between the dancers’ toes.
“The performance takes place on a bed of sand. Literally
they have shipped the sand from Japan so that they could have the
perfect grain of sand for the dancers to dance on,” said
Regas. “When the dancers move quickly, they create clouds of
sand dust. In order to get that effect, they wanted their own sand
from Japan.”
The performers’ unembellished appearance adds to the
piece’s minimalism, which keeps the focus directed toward the
technical movements of the dancers. “Kagemi” features
seven completely hairless male dancers completely covered in white
makeup, which adds to the visual simplicity of the piece.
“The makeup allows the dancers to be as universal as
possible. It gives them a very androgynous look. It’s as
though it is not entirely human,” Regas said. “They
don’t want the dancers to necessarily be discernible from
each other, which is very common in Butoh.”
Amagatsu uses simple and modern visuals because, unlike a
narrative dance, Sankai Juku’s performances are supposed to
be interpreted differently by each viewer.
Just as Sankai Juku’s performances are minimalist in
nature, its American performances are scarce. The group tours
America only once every three years, but those few performances are
worth the wait, according to Regas.
“The lighting, the costumes and the set are perfectly
executed,” she said. “Like a little army, they come in
and create this entire universe and you feel like you’re
watching something from another planet.”