Premiere New York Premiere
Production Language English
Country of Origin United States
Description Falling Out is a spellbinding, multidisciplinary theatrical work fusing butoh tradition with puppetry, contemporary flex dance, visual design, and soundscape to explore humanity’s relationship to water. Centered on the aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011, the piece also serves as the final installment in Phantom Limb’s environmental trilogy. BAM previously presented the trilogy’s Memory Rings (2016 NWF) and 69°S. (a collaboration with Kronos Quartet, 2011 NWF). These works serve as a call for agency in response to the mounting dangers of climate change.
While Falling Out focuses on the environmental ramifications of a tsunami striking the Fukushima plant, its broader story addresses the wide-ranging impact of climate change across cultures and socio-economic classes. In this light, its hybrid performance content combines three vastly different performance arts: puppetry—a hallmark of Phantom Limb’s work; butoh—a Japanese dance form that arose in response the bombings of Hiroshima, featuring slow and hyper-controlled movements; and flex dancing—a style of dance born in Brooklyn, utilizing liquid movement techniques. Phantom Limb has collaborated with butoh dancer Dai Matsuoka of Sankai Juku for this piece.
Identifier 2018f.11107
