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BROOKLYNACADEMY OF MUSIC (BAM) 1996 NEXTWAVE FESTIVAL AS PARTOF SAM'S 135THANNIVERSARY YEAR (1861-1996)

YURAGI IN A SPACE OF PERPETUALMOTION

PERFORMEDBY SANKAI JUKU DIRECTED,CHOREOGRAPHED AND DESIGNEDBY USHIO AMAGATSU

NOVEMBER 12, 14-16 BAM OPERA HOUSE

Returning to New York for the first time since 1990 - the company then performed its critically acclaimed butoh piece Unetsu - Sankai Juku brings its newest dance piece Yuragi, In a Space of Perpetual Motion , to New York. Mystical , ethereal images and phenomenal phys ical control are the characteristics that endear Sankai Juku, the dance compan y from Japan, to a world-wide audience. Yuragi will be presented a t the Broo klyn Academy of Music (BAM) as part of the 14th annua l Next Wa ve Festival , sponsored by Philip Morris Compan ies, Inc. , the leading Next Wave sponsor since 1985. Yuragi will be performed November 12 at 7:00pm and November 14 - 16 at 8:00pm at the BAM Opera House , 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.

Procla imed by Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times as " ...one of the most orig inal and startling dance theater groups ..." Sankai Juku, the five-member butoh dance company from Japan has toured internationall y and has been enthusiastically rece ived by audiences worldwide . Their late st piece, Yuragi, is a combinat ion of stunn ing visua l elements and striking choreography of butoh dance . Butoh evolved as a new dance form in Japan during the l 960's as a reaction to the horrors of World War II. It involves minimal mo vements and stunning feats of athleticism using a combination of dramatic lighting, shadows

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BAM 135th Anniversary Season is sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc. 2 and movement to convey images of human survival amid horrible suffering. Investigating a method of expression appropriate to a new Japan, butoh reflects the feelings of its young generation . Its gestures come from a sensibility that has been restrained by centuries of tradition , unencumbered by the ancient vocabulary of Kabuki and Noh.

Sankai Juku founder and artistic director Ushio Amagatsu's own vision has enhanced the understanding of this Japanese dance form. His work is a great departure from the masking of emotions and is premised on a personal expression of suffering. For him, butoh expresses the language of the body rather than being a stylization of movement. Therefore each individual dancer brings his own physical history and method of expression to the art form. Amagatsu's choreography , while enigmatic, has a quality of gentleness interrupted only by sudden sharp movements. With immense self control, the dancers' bodies move slowly and quietly, nearly imperceptible until one realizes that their image has shifted. Sankai Juku presents itself as a mysterious, even baffling entity, using the inner being to conceive symbol ic and ritualistic gestures. As such, meaning remains deeply hidden forcing one into the depths of Japanese tradition, history and spirituality.

Before he worked in butoh style, Amagatsu studied classical as well as modern dance. In 1975 he started a series of workshops. From those sessions, he developed Sankai Juku selecting three dancers from the workshop to create the company. The name Sankai Juku can be translated as "studio of mounta in and sea." The company's first ful l scale production, Homage to Ancient Dolls ( 1977) led to the creation of Kinkan Shonen, which was presented in Tokyo in 1978. This production revealed Amagatsu's own vision which has enhanced the understanding of butoh. In 1980 Sankai Juku was invited to perform in the West for the first time. The company went to the Nancy Festival in and for the next four years remained in Europe where they performed in numerous theaters and festivals. In 1984, they were invited to come to where they made their debut at the Toronto International Festival and the L.A. Olympic Arts Festival. Subsequently they have been embraced warmly by audiences throughout and the United States. Their second North American tour was curtailed when Yoshiyuki Takada accidentally died during a performance. The company canceled the remaining engagements and returned home, some to Japan, others to . The company has toured Boston, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati , Minneapolis, Washington D.C., Seattle and New York City.

Yuragi by Sankai Juku is directed , choreographed and designed by Ushio Amagatsu, music by Yas-Kaz and Yoichiro Yoshikawa. Dancers are Ushio Amagatsu , Semimaru, Toru Iwashita, Sho Takeuchi, and Taketeru Kudo. The piece was originally co-produced by Theatre de la Ville, Paris - CNDC Angers, Ginza Saison Theatre, Tokyo and Sankai Juku and world premiered at the Theatre de la Villa, Paris in May 1993. North American Management by International Production Associates, Inc.

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Yuragi, directed, choreographed and designed by Ushlo Amagatsu and performed by Sankal Juku will be presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) as part the 14th annual 1996 Next Wave Festival, November 12 at 7:00pm and November 14 - 16 at 8:00pm at the BAM Opera House, at 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn. Ticket prices are $50, $35 and $20. Single tickets for the 1996 Next Wave Festival may be purchased after September 7 at the BAM Box Office at 30 Lafayette Avenue or over the phone by calling Ticketmaster at 212.307.4100. For information concerning BAM subscriptions, the 1996 Next Wave Festival performances or reservations on the BAMBus, sponsored by Brooklyn Union , call 718.636.4 100. BAM Prefers VISA.

Special support provided for Sankal Juku • Yuragl by The Harkness Foundations for Dance and the Consulate General of Japan. The tour for Sankai Juku has been made possible through the cooperation of Japan-United States Friendship Commission , Mitsubishi Motors and Shiseido.

BAM 135th Anniversary Season is sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc.

The 1996 Next Wave Festival is sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music gratefully acknowledges generous support for the Next Wave Festival from donors of the following special funds, which have been established for The Campaign for BAM:

NEXTWAVE Forward Fund Philip Morris/Founding Sponsor -- "Supporting the Spirit of Innovation" The Bohen Foundation

Michael Bancroft Goth Endowed Annual Performance Fund The Charles and Valerie Diker Dance Endowment Fund The Marion Petschek Smith Fund for Choreographers

1996 Next Wave Festival Supporters: The Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council; Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden ; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts; Hermes; The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation , Inc. ; The Haro ld and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust; Visa U.S.A. Inc .; The Pew Charitable Trusts: The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs through Associat ion Franc;aise d'Action Artistique and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York; The Harkness Foundations for Dance; The Robert W. Wilson Foundation Inc .; The Henry Luce Foundation , Inc .; Air France; AT&T;The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; Dow Jones & Company , Inc., The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Telerate , Barron's Magazine, Dow Jones News Services; The Ford Foundation ; Metropolitan Life Foundation ; The Rockefeller Foundation; Jonathan F.P. and Diana Rose; The Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation, Inc.; The Howard Gilman Foundation; Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York; Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust; New Yorker Magazine; May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation , Inc./ The New York Information Technology Center; New York Mercantile Exchange more ... 4

Independence Savings Bank; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts ; Forbes Inc.; Starrett at Spring Creek , managed by Grenadier Realty Corp .; New York Magazine; Bowne of New York; Interview Magazine: Con Edison: The Greenwall Foundation; Union Europeenne de CIC France Telecom North America; Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation ; Australian Consu late Gene ral Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation ; Consu late General of Japan Harper & Case, Ltd.; Time Warner , Inc .; The Arch W. Shaw Foundation; Canadian Consulate General Quebec Government House in New York; Capezio-Ballet Ma kers Dance Foundation Inc. ; The Cowles Charitable Trust; Meet The Composer: Club France; Italian Cultural Institute; Dance Ink: BAM 135th Anniversary Committee ; BAM Chairman 's Circle ; BAM Producers Council; BAM Associates ; Friends of BAM

The BAM facility is owned by the City of New York and its operation is made possible , in part , with public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with support from the Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council and Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden.

8/15/96 YURAGI.DOC The Zeisler FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Group Contact: Eric Latzky 212-807-6480

The Exquisite Mystery of SANKAI JUKU Ushio Amagatsu, Direction and Choreography

18-City U.S. And Canadian Tour, September 26 -December 3, By The Internationally Celebrated Butoh Dance Company From Japan, To Feature YURAGI: IN A SPACE OF PERPETUAL MOTION, A North American Premiere

PART OF THE 1996 BAM/ NEXT WA VE FESTIVAL - FIRST NEW YORK VISIT IN 5 YEARS L.A.'s Wiltern Theater, Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall, New Orleans Ballet, And Toronto's O'Keefe Center Among Many Noted Venues

"Hypnotically beguiling ," wrote D.P. Steams in USA Today of an earlier American visit by Sankai Juku, Ushio Amagatsu's "second generation" Butoh dance company . Greatly distinguished in Japan, critically celebrated throughout Europe and internationally , Sankai Juku returns to the United States and Canada this fall for their fifth North American visit to present Yuragi: In a Space of Perpetual Motion (North American premiere ). The five-member troupe, headed by Amagatsu, will visit eighteen cities in the U.S. and Canada . The tour begins in Seattle on September 26, and travels to the art deco masterpiece Wiltem Theater in Los Angeles , the New Orleans Ballet, Boston's Wang Center , the National Arts Center in Ottawa , and the O'Keefe Center in Toronto , among many other noted venues . In New York, Sankai Juku will perform Yuragi as a part of the 1996 Next Wave Festival at the BAM Opera House. The 1996 North American Sankai Juku tour is produced by Jedediah Wheeler and Linda Greenberg of International Production Associates (IPA) .

Visually stunning, Yuragi features magical images of white-painted "floating dancers ," celestial rabbits perched twenty feet above the stage, giant hovering discs raised and lowered over a sea of sand , and measured though highly expressionistic and kinetic movement emanating from the deepest places of the human soul. Mesmerizing , exquisitely crafted and performed, Amagatsu's stage v1s10n leaves audience s transfixed - more - ~ 25 Charles Stre et. IC. New York NY 10014

Tel. 212-807-648 0 Fax 212-675-1926 SANKAI JUKU / Page Three For USHIO AMAGATSU , Butoh expresses the language of the body rather than a theoretical meaning of movement. Therefore , each individual brings his own physical history and method of expression to the art form. Before he worked in the Butoh style, Amagatsu trained in classical as well as modem dance. In 1975, he started a series of workshops; from these sessions he developed the idea of SANKAI JUKU and selected three dancers from the workshop to help create the company. The name Sankai Juku can be translated to mean "studio of mountain and sea."

The company's first full scale production was Homage to Ancient Dolls in 1977. Based on this production, Amagatsu created Kinkan Slwnen, which was presented in Tokyo in 1978. This production was a great departure from the masking of emotion and was premised on a personal expression of suffering. This contrast with universally accepted Japanese performance traditions underscores Sankai Juku 's passionate appreciation for the joy of life and the sadness of death. The white immobile face traditionally represents a thwarted human being, but the whitened faces and bodies of Sankai Juku are mobile and in touch with innocence , wonder, fear and mortality.

In 1980, Sankai Juku was invited to perform in the West for the first time. They went to the Nancy Festival in France with the firm conviction that Butoh - a universal cry from the origins of humanity - would be accepted. However, they did not go to expose Japanese culture to the Europeans, rather to experience other cultural climates which would give their work new resonance. For the next four years, the company remained in Europe where they performed constantly. In 1984, they were invited to North America where they made their debut at the Toronto International Festival and the L.A. Olympic Arts Festival, and have toured extensively in North America since.

Sankai Juku 's second North American tour was curtailed when Yoshiyuki Takada accidentally died during a performance in Washington on September 10, 1985. The company canceled the remaining engagements and returned home, some to Japan, others to Paris. In the spring of 1986, Sankai Juku, started a new sixteen-city tour of North America which began in Seattle. The company has been seen in numerous American and Canadian cities, and has continued to be a much sought after performance group.

Since 1982, Theatre de la Ville in Paris has been responsible for the commission of seven - more -