To celebrate the four decades of his company Sankai Juku, in 2015, Ushio Amagatsu created Meguri, a grand spectacle on the changing beauty of nature. An emblematic figure of Japanese butoh since the 1970s and a frequent guest at the Oriente Occidente Festival, Ushio Amagatsu presents a highly personal interpretation of the "dance of shadows," moving away from the political claims of its origins and focusing more on diving into a dimension of ecstatic beauty through a body language that digs into the depths of every human being to reach universality.
The title Meguri refers to the Japanese verb that identifies the circular movement of water and the cosmos, the cycle of the seasons, and the Earth's rotation. The subtitle, Esuberanza marina e tranquillità terrestre (Marine Exuberance and Earthly Tranquility), further clarifies the author’s intent to transport the audience into a symbolic and liminal universe, suspended between Shigan (the earthly world) and Higan (the afterlife).
In line with tradition, the eight male dancers of the group, all of whom have been with the company since its founding, are beings with shaved heads and bodies covered in white paint, seeking reconciliation with their demons and the forces of the external world. Powerful, magnetic, and cathartic in Meguri, they are surrounded by the natural elements recurrent in Amagatsu's works (Earth, Water, Wind, and Sand) and a magnificent backdrop resembling a bas-relief wall of Paleozoic marine fossils known as “sea lilies.”
The lighting shifts from yellow to ochre, inspired by the paintings of Vermeer, in the seven tableaux that compose the piece, titled respectively: Chiamata da lontano (Call from Afar), Trasformazione sul fondo del mare (Transformation on the Ocean Floor), Due superfici (Two Surfaces), Premonizione, Quiete, Tremiti (Premonition, Calm, Quakes), Foresta di Fossili (Forest of Fossils), Tessiture (Weavings), and Ritorno (Return).
The bodies, like an organic accordion, expand and fold in on themselves, moving like waves sustained by a broad, breathing motion. In the performance unfolds a mystical tranquility supported by omnipresent, fluid, and rhythmically invariant music. The result is a visual poem of unprecedented refinement.
sankaijuku.com
