Two performers with white-painted skin and flowing skirts dance on a pale stage, separated by a transparent panel. One appears mid-motion while the other stands still, both reflected in the surface.

Prep School: Totem

Sankai Juku presents the final work of founder Ushio Amagatsu, who led the company for half a century before his death in 2024.

Four dancers in flowing white costumes stand on a textured stage, each at a corner, reaching upward. Behind them are large circular frames and a vertical structure at the center, under dramatic lighting.

Indefinite Articles

Sankai Juku: TOTEM—Void and Height

Thomas Looser on Sankai Juku

In many ways, butoh’s body is at once prehuman and posthuman.

GET INTO IT

GET THEE TO THE LIBRARY

Recommended readings to get you in gear for the show.

Ushio Amagatsu, Sankai Juku (2003).
Bruce Baird, A History of Butō (2022).
Sondra Horton Fraleigh, Dancing into Darkness: Butoh, Zen, and Japan (1999).

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A Conversation with Ushio Amagatsu, Artistic Director of Sankai Juku

“I consider human beings and human nature to be the basic themes of my works.”

WALKER ART CENTER | NOV 2006

A retrospective look at iconic butoh artist Ushio Amagatsu

Dance researcher Sylviane Pagès, author of a book on the history of butoh in France, pays tribute to the legacy of this iconic artist.

MAGAZINE CDB | OCT 2024

DANCERS WHO PROBE THE DARK CORNERS OF THE MIND

“Projecting unerasable impressions is our business.”

NEW YORK TIMES | OCT 1984