The National Arts Centre presents the Canadian premiere of Hibiki by Japan's acclaimed Sankai Juku
October 25, 2002 -
OTTAWA -- Japan's extraordinary
Sankai Juku performs Hibiki (Resonance from Far Away) in
Southam Hall of the National Arts Centre (NAC) on Saturday November
9, 2002 at 20:00. Sankai Juku is Japan's most prominent success in
contemporary dance and most popular exponent of Butoh dance. The
company creates an otherworldly, emotionally charged atmosphere,
uniting the audience in an imagined world of secret ritual. The work
is sensual, meticulously choreographed, and performed with immense
intensity. A tremendous hit with audiences around the world, Sankai
Juku is making a welcome return to Ottawa after a six-year
absence.
Hibiki, Sankai Juku's latest piece, is an
internationally-acclaimed, award-winning work of unparalleled
simplicity and poetic beauty. Performed in a dream landscape with
whirling costumes, the company of six dancers blend 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 concave glass lenses. Lying on the
ground, performers uncurl effortlessly -- like lotus flowers -- from
fetal positions and weave elemental movements into a delicate slow
motion dance. Statues of granite brought to life, they pulse through
sand and shadow, splashed by glistening ice which suddenly changes
into carmine blood. This dynamic interplay of large and small
gestures, accompanied by a lyrical electronic score by Kako and
Yoshikawa, is quintessential Sankai Juku -- cracking the kernel of
the particular to liberate the universal.
"One of the most original and startling dance theater groups to
be seen in New York."
Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times
A luminous rite -- slow, enigmatic, beautiful!"
Deborah Jowitt, 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."
Kathryn Greenaway, The Montreal Gazette
"A complete theatrical experience of rare beauty and visual
power."
Martha Ullman West, The Portland Oregonian
Sankai Juku (which can be translated to mean 'studio of
mountain and sea') and Artistic Director Ushio Amagatsu are part
of the second generation of Butoh dancers in Japan. Butoh is a new
Japanese art form that evolved during the 1960s as an expression of
humanitarian awareness by a post-war generation. Led by Tatsumi
Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, Japanese dancers rejected the traditional
forms of Eastern and Western dance, investigating a method of
expression appropriate to a new Japan. The gestures seen in Butoh
emanate from a sensibility that has been restrained by centuries of
tradition, but the body of the Butoh dancer is unencumbered by the
ancient vocabulary of Kabuki or Noh. For Ushio Amagatsu, Butoh
expresses the language of the body rather than a theoretical meaning
of movement, and each individual brings his own physical history and
method of expression to the art form. Before he worked in the Butoh
style, Amagatsu trained in classical as well as modern dance, and his
vision has enhanced the understanding of Butoh. His work is a great
departure from the masking of emotion and is premised on a personal
expression of suffering, and passionate appreciation for the joy of
life and the sadness of death. A white immobile face traditionally
represents a thwarted human being, but the whitened face of the Butoh
dancer is mobile and is in touch with innocence, wonder, fear and
mortality.
In 1980, Sankai Juku performed in the West for the first time.
They went to France with the firm conviction that Butoh -- a
universal cry from the origins of humanity -- would be accepted. For
the next four years, the company remained in Europe where they
performed constantly. Since their 1984 North America debut, they have
toured extensively and have been embraced warmly by audiences
throughout Canada, the United States, and around the world.
