Looking back at last year, I can’t quite remember what I was doing on October 4th, but I wish that I was at the Granada Theatre watching Sankai Juku perform their program Meguri: Teeming Sea, Tranquil Land.
Sankai Juku is one of the more strange and bizarre dance groups that Arts & Lectures has hosted in my time working there. The dancer’s slow movements on the stage leave audience members moved and puzzled by the art they have witnessed. Since I did not see Sankai Juku in person, I decided to watch their performance from the comfort of my home. I watched some clips of the same performance (Meguri: Teeming Sea, Tranquil Land) they danced at the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara. After a couple of minutes, I was mesmerized and almost creeped out at the way the dancers were moving their bodies. Their movements were robotic and animalistic at the same time. There were instances where the dancers were frozen in time with their mouths open. I decided to look into their style of dance and learn more about the origins of the group. It turns out that Sankai Juku is a Butoh company. Essentially, they are a company that aims to display extreme visual images constructed by the bodies of the painted dancers. Sankai Juku aims to create art that will provoke emotion and “seduce” the audience in the process.
After further researching the Meguri: Teeming Sea, Tranquil Land piece, I found that the choreography is inspired by themes of creation and evolution. In Meguri, the dancers perform meditation to symbolize the seasonal transformation of the earth. Some parts of the performance, or at least the parts that I was able to watch on YouTube, were slow while others were more fast-paced. I can assume that the different movements represent the natural phases that the earth has gone through. Sankai Juku has been named “one of the most original and startling dance theatre groups” by the New York Times for good reason. They have created conversation through their mesmerizing dances that leave audiences paralyzed.
Sadly, Sankai Juku’s 2020 season was canceled due to the current pandemic, but in May, they were streaming their performances for free on YouTube. The group has created a new piece every two years since 1975 and I have no doubts that will continue mesmerizing audiences around the world once they are able to do so!
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