Alternate Title Within a Gentle Vibration and Agitation
Country of Origin Japan
Description At once primeval and prophetic, ethereal and profoundly corporeal, butoh is a hybrid that invokes elements of both Eastern and Western dance yet stands utterly apart. Created in 1960s Japan as the postwar generation's response to Hiroshima - and to the terrors of modern life - butoh has evolved from a psychic scream into something manifestly joyous, and equally urgent.
As practiced by Japan's preeminent troupe, Sankai Juku (last at BAM in 1996, with the much lauded Yuragi: In a Space of Perpetual Motion), the stage is transformed into a mystical setting populated by hairless, chalk-dusted bodies that coil and unfurl at a stately pace, calling up images of unspecified embryonic and aboriginal life forms. Hiyomeki (within a gentle vibration and agitation), Sankai Juku choreographer Ushio Amagatsu's latest offering, celebrates the alliance between the body and movement. The internal becomes external as emotions, long held in check, are released through spectacularly controlled, space-carving gestures.
Identifier 1999f.00669
