R.I.P. Ushio Amagatsu

The news was just released today of the March 25th, 2024 death of Ushio Amagatsu, legendary choreographer and founder of the Butoh dance troupe Sankai Juku. Butoh is the singular Japanese dance form developed after the horrors of World War II characterized by extremely expressive and often frightening or grotesque gestures (like the "Silent Scream"), white full-body paint, and very slow movements.

Amagatsu founded Sankai Juku in 1975 and introduced Butoh to the Western world, using highly otherworldly costumes, sets, and original music. Since 1982 all of Sankai Juku's works were premiered at and co-produced by Théâtre de la Ville, Paris. Over the years, I had the honor of seeing two, incredible, haunting full productions in which they performed, among other pieces, Kagemi, Hibiki, and Yuragi. I was utterly mesmerized and shaken for many days after.

R.I.P. Ushio Amagatsu. Thank you for manifesting such a profound and ferocious physical expression into this world.

https://www.sankaijuku.com/?lang=en

"Zero" by Ólafur Arnalds

Wowsa, just take a look at this video for "Zero" by modern composer Ólafur Arnalds. I have been so interested in what drones can do for film, from a photography perspective, and did not even think of what drones can do for lighting! As the dancers move through the forest in this video, they are lit by some local stationary lights, but the motion and atmosphere come from the shifting lights overhead on a drone, making the shadows of the branches swirl around them. UTTERLY MAGICAL.

https://olafurarnalds.com/

"I Will Fall For You" by Woodkid

"I Will Fall For You," a lovely collaboration between Belgian avant-garde choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Woodkid (French musician and director Yoann Leamire).

http://www.woodkid.com/

"Saint Claude" and "Tilted" by Christine and the Queens

I could have sworn I had already posted these songs by the lovely Christine and the Queens (Héloïse Letissier)--I've been enjoying them for a while now, particularly "Saint Claude"--but upon closer inspection at my tags, I only posted her duet with Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas), here. So I will correct this omission...

I love her voice and I love her songwriting skill, but what the video provides is what I truly adore: her mesmerizing choreography. Letissier's movements (here refined with the help of choreographer Cathy Ematchoua) may reference moves from a wide variety of beloved genres and moves from other pop stars, but she ends up with a dance vernacular that feels entirely her own...a Post-Modern version of all that came before. I love the addition of some hand movements that feel like sign language or enigmatic gestures; her movements are as full of meaning as her words. And of course the completely unexpected ending is breathtaking and magical.

Beautiful yearning in this story about a chance encounter on a train--one of those moments we've probably all experienced where we are connected to a stranger in a flash and see a possible life with this person.

Souffle saccadé (Staccato breath)
Voilà qui laisse deviner que tout se décide (That's what lets us guess it's happening)

Maquillé comme à la craie (Made up as if with chalk)
Tout détonne et tout me plaît, les mains sont livides (Everything clashes and it all appeals to me, the hands are livid)

Un seul de tes poignets est tatoué (Only one of your wrists is tattooed)
Défiguré par ta manche (Defaced by your sleeve)
Le lion ne sourit qu'à moitié (The lion shows only a half-smile)
A mes solitudes immenses (At my profound loneliness)
Ton visage ne sera jamais entier (Your face will never be whole)
Comme tu regardes au-dehors (As you look out-beyond)
J'emporte un portrait dévoré (I take with me a portrait half-eaten)
Douleur destin bord à bord (Sorrow and fate side by side)

Here's my station...here's my station
But if you say just one word, I'll stay with you

La belle attitude (What an attitude)
Que l'impatience comme certitude, collier à trois fils (Impatience as much as certitude, and a three strand necklace)

Tu seras j'espère (You will be I hope)
Fidèle aux violences qui opèrent dès que tu respires (Faithful to the fury that manifests as soon as you breathe)

D'ordinaire cette ville n'offre rien (Usually this town offers nothing)
Qu'une poignée d'odeurs tenaces (But a handful of clinging smells)
Et cette ville est morte je sais bien (And I know well that this town is dead)
Toi seul garde de l'audace (You alone keep some boldness)
Il faudrait que tu la portes loin (You will need to carry it further)
Alors que d'autres renoncent (While others give up)
Je descends deux enfers plus loin (I go down two hells below)
Pour que l'orage s'annonce (For the storm to start)

Here's my station...here's my station
But if you say just one word, I'll stay with you

We are so lonely
In this part of town

(Mille mercis à ma chère Odette à l'aide de cette traduction--je t'aime!)

And here is her delightful song "Tilted" which again takes advantage of her singular dance vocabulary in a much livelier way.

I will die before Methusalah
So I'll fight sleep with Ammonia
And every morning with eyes all red
I'll miss them for all the tears they shed

But I am actually good
Can't help it if we're tilted
I am actually good
Can't help it if we
I am actually good
Can't help it if we're tilted
I am actually good
Can't help it if we're tilted

I miss prosthesis and mended souls
Trample over beauty while singing their thoughts
I match them with my euphoria
When they said "Je suis plus folle que toi"

But I am actually good
Can't help it if we're tilted
I am actually good
Can't help it if we
I am actually good
Can't help it if we're tilted
I am actually good
Can't help it if we're tilted

Nous et la man on est de sortie
Pire qu'une simple moitié on compte à demi-demi
Pile sur un des bas côtés comme des origamis
Le bras tendu paraît cassé tout n'est qu'épis et éclis
Ces enfants bizarres
Crachés dehors comme par hasard
Cachant l'effort dans le griffoir
Et une creepy song en étendard qui fait:

I'm doing my face
With magic marker
I'm in my right place
Don't be a downer

I am actually good
Can't help it if we're tilted
I am actually good
Can't help it if we
I am actually good
Can't help it if we're tilted

http://www.christineandthequeens.com/

"Levitation" by Sila Sveta

"Levitation" is a collaborative performance by Sila Sveta (specialists in cutting-edge 3D Projection Mapping and 3D stage designs,) and Russian choreographer Anna Abalikhina. The company says that all visuals were rendered in real time without any post production. It's a startling presentation that comes from the simple process of tilting the performing stage in conjunction with projection mapping.

http://en.silasveta.com/

BEAUTY: Installation--William Forsythe

William Forsythe has an impressive CV as a dancer and choreographer. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet and later the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was appointed Resident Choreographer in 1976, and was also director of Ballet Frankfurt from 1984 to 2004. Since then he has helmed The Forsythe Company, a dance and performance troupe. Through that venture, he branched out into performance art pieces, as well as art installations that tangentially relate to the idea of choreography, occupying space, and changing the space one inhabits through movement.

His project Scattered Crowd has been installed in public spaces across Europe, in Korea, and in Canada. It entails filling each space with thousands of suspended and tethered white and clear balloons that respond to the stillness or movement of any participant. It must be like walking through a dream of pearly bubbles...

Frankfurt's Bockenheimer Depot will host Scattered Crowd in March of 2013.

But I particularly love his piece Bouncy White Castle. It seems that at least two or three times a year in my neighborhood, some child with a birthday gets a raucously fun bouncy house in his front yard. "Why oh why don't they make them for adults?" I always moan as I drive by. In 2007, Forsythe created an enormous bouncy house, which, judging by its enormous size, clearly holds adults. The element of choreography here is actually a type of anti-choreography: the piece relies on a soft unsupported floor and the corresponding physical instability of participants. The resulting movements cannot be predicted.

http://www.williamforsythe.de/
http://www.theforsythecompany.com/