Sankai Juku returns to BAM for first time in nine years with UMUSUNA (photo courtesy of Sankai Juku)
NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
October 28-31, $25-$75, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.sankaijuku.com
Feeling a bit overwhelmed these days? Can’t navigate through all the emails, crowded subway trains, streets jammed with tourists? Looking for something to calm you down, relax, give you a little time to stop and be here now? Japanese dance troupe Sankai Juku has just the right remedy. This week the Tokyo-based Butoh purveyors return to New York City for the first time in five years, since performing Tobari: As If in an Inexhaustible Flux at the Joyce in 2010. They are back at BAM for the first time in nine years, as director, choreographer, designer, and Sankai Juku founder Ushio Amagatsu brings Umusuna: Memories Before History to the Howard Gilman Opera House October 28-31, following such previous BAM performances as Hibiki (Resonance from Far Away) in 2002 and Kagemi: Beyond the Metaphors of Mirrors in 2006. The dancers, covered in white talcum powder, will move agonizingly slowly through sand as they contemplate the elements: fire, water, air, and earth. The meditative piece, part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival and the company’s fortieth anniversary, features music by Takashi Kako, Yas-Kaz, and Yoichiro Yoshikawa. Should you want to try this at home, Sankai Juku founding member and longtime dancer Semimaru will lead the Butoh class “Sankai Juku: What Makes a Body Move” on October 30 at 12 noon ($25, no experience necessary) at the Mark Morris Dance Center right across the street.