YBCA & SFP Present
Sankai Juku: Hibiki—Resonance from Far Away
Thu, Nov 11 – Sat, Nov 13, 8 pm
Novellus Theater
Sun, Nov 14, 2 pm
Novellus Theater
$60 premium; $54 Mem/Stu/Sen/Tea
$50 price 2; $45 Mem/Stu/Sen/Tea
$35 price 3; $31.50 Mem/Stu/Sen/Tea
"The singular glory of Sankai Juku is that it achieves almost pure metaphor." - Time
"The dance antithesis of effusive Broadway musicals and spasmodic club dancing can be found with Sankai Juku... Born in Japan in the devastated aftermath of World War II, Butoh can suggest inner sorrow, but it can also be infused with the present-moment transcendence… It is slow, deliberate, almost hypnotic, and beautiful in its simplicity." - Flavorpill NYC
YBCA and San Francisco Performances are honored to celebrate the return of Japan's famed Butoh troupe, Sankai Juku, to the Bay Area, performing one of the company's signature works, Hibiki – Resonance from Far Away. For over 30 years, the work of choreographer 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 both sublime visual spectacles and deeply moving theatrical experiences. Hibiki is an award-winning work of unparalleled simplicity and poetic beauty. At the heart of the piece lies a desire to glimpse life’s meaning and beauty in its most elemental form. Performed in a dream landscape with whirling costumes, the company of six male dancers, heads shaven and bodies painted white from top to toe, weave meticulous, hypnotic movement with breathtaking large-scale staging to create a truly hypnotic dance experience.
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Sankai Juku
Founded in 1975 by Ushio Amagatsu, Sankai Juku performed abroad for the first time at the Nancy International Theatre Festival in 1980. Since then, Sankai Juku has performed in 40 countries in more than 700 cities. Artistic director Ushio Amagatsu trained in classical as well as modern dance before he created his own unique interpretation of Butoh, a contemporary Japanese dance style which was created in the aftermath of World War II. A gentler and less bleak form of Butoh than that of his precedessors, Amagatusu's choreography focuses more on mysticism and stage imagery to create an abstract vision of the infinite through the relationship of the body to gravity and of gravity to the earth. Sankai Juku first performed in the U.S. in 1984 at the L.A. Olympic Arts Festival and have toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada ever since. This will be their sixth Bay Area appearance.
Sankai Juku
Walker Art Center: A Conversation with Ushio Amagatsu, Artistic Director of Sankai Juku
Guardian.co.uk: Step-by-step guide to dance: Sankai Juku
Sankai Juku - interview with Ushio Amagatsu (YouTube)