SANKAI JUKU

• Direction, Choreography & Design: Ushio Amagatsu

• Assisted by: Semimaru
• Musics: YAS-KAZ, Yoichiro Yoshikawa
• Stage Manager: Keiji Morita
• Light Design: Satoru Suzuki
• Sound Design: Junko Miyazaki
• Coproduction: CNCDC Chateauvallon (France), Sankai Juku (Tokyo, Japon)
• With the help of: Shiseido, Japan Government Agency for Cultural Affairs
• Dancers: Sho Takeuchi, Akihito Ichihara, Ichiro Hasegawa, Dai Matsuoka, Norihito Ishii, Shunsuke Momoki

Lasts approx. 70’ w/o interval

Age Recommendation: 13+

The legendary choreographer Ushio Amagatsu who introduced Europe to butoh nearly 45 years ago, has since championed this very special Japanese dance form and built a solid fan base worldwide. While he passed away this March, his much-celebrated company Sankai Juku will be making their Turkey debut at the festival with Utsushi.

Created at the special request of international festivals willing to present Sankai Juku in various features, Utsushi is composed of excerpts from the repertory of the company, reworked and restaged by Amagatsu in order to constitute a work of its own as the quintessence of his art from the last 45 years.

As Raimund Hoghe puts it: ‘Utsushi is much more than a compilation. Ushio Amagatsu creates a breath-taking dialogue between the beauty of his work and the beauty of nature, the sounds of nature and the composed music, the dance and the wind, the floor and the sky, the stars over our heads and the fire in front of us. With Utsushi, Amagatsu opens a new door – and we can see and feel the beauty of life.’

A TRIBUTE TO THE MASTER OF BUTOH:

USHIO AMAGATSU (31.12.1949 – 25.03.2024)

Sankai Juku was created in 1975 under the direction of Ushio Amagatsu who belongs to the second generation of butoh dancers. Butoh transcended the reactions of the post-Hiroshima generation in Japan, in the sixties, and launched the basis of a radical approach of Japanese contemporary dance.

For Amagatsu, Butoh is not merely a new technique or an academic style, but it tends to articulate the body language in order to find, in the depth of each human being, a common sense, a serene universality, and sometimes cruelty or brutality.

Amagatsu’s personal quest is based on a ‘Dialogue with Gravity’, which is also the title of the book he published in 2001 at Actes Sud Edition.

Before practising butoh, he trained at the Classic and Modern Dance School in Tokyo. In 1975, he began a series of workshops in order to find the dancers for his newborn company, which was then known as an only-men company. Sankai Juku literally means the ‘workshop of the mountain and sea’ in reference to the two basic elements of Japan topology. Sankai Juku then began to perform in Japan in rather small and avant-garde theatres. The group’s first major production was Kinkan Shonen in 1978. It revealed the new artistic direction taken by Amagatsu who has given Butoh a clearer and more transparent image, more telluric too. The strength in each individual expression, in each movement, in each inside emotion nourishes itself from the origins of the world to show a passionate apprehension of life and death and universality.

In 1980, Sankai Juku was invited for the first time to Europe, to the Nancy Festival. Since then, the company has toured throughout Europe, South America, United States and Australia, and whole Asia, from its home base in Tokyo.

Outside of his company, Amagatsu created in 1988 with five western dancers a piece called Fifth. He staged the opera Trois Soeurs by Peter Eotvos at the Opéra de Lyon (1998) and Paris (Théâtre du Chatelet), Brussels (Théâtre de la Monnaie) and Vienne (Wiener Festwochen). He also staged the latest opera production Lady Sarashina, again by Peter Eotvos, at Opéra de Lyon and Opéra Comique in Paris. Amagatsu also choreographed a solo piece for the Indian dancer Shantala Shivalingappa.

GENERAL SALES

General sales begin at 10.30 on Tuesday, 2 July. The box office of İKSV, located in Şişhane, Beyoğlu is open every day from 10.00 to 13.00 and from 14.00 to 18.00, except Sunday.

PASSO SALES CHANNELS

Tickets can be purchased via passo.com.tr and Passo Mobile application or by creating a membership or from the İKSV main box office. You can attend the events with your PDF tickets sent to your e-mail address, which can also be accessed from the ‘my tickets’ tab under your profile information on the Passo website. Ticket prices include service fee.

ECZACIBAŞI YOUTH TICKET

Eczacıbaşı Youth Tickets can be purchased from all Passo counters and passo.com.tr by creating a membership. To purchase tickets, ‘eczacibasigencbilet’ must be written in the code field on the campaign screen.

Depending on the quota of each event, a limited number of Eczacıbaşı Youth Tickets will be on sale. Only one Eczacıbaşı Youth Ticket can be purchased at a time. In seated events, a special sitting section is created for this category. In standing activities, unless otherwise stated, regular and student ticket holders will be mixed.

The student status of the audience with Eczacıbaşı Youth Tickets will be checked at the venue entrances before the events, and viewers whose ID information does not match their Youth Ticket will be directed to the box office to purchase a difference ticket. In order to enter the event, students must show their valid student ID or a formal student document retrieved from E-Devlet (E-Government) for Turkish citizens. Istanbul Card is invalid. Student IDs of students studying abroad are valid. Youth Tickets are personal, non-transferable and not sellable. Name and surname must be provided when purchasing a ticket.

The difference ticket will be the amount between the lowest general sales category and the student ticket. In case of being late to the event due to the waiting time that may occur while purchasing the difference ticket, the responsibility belongs to the audience, and the ticket will not be refunded in any way. Tickets will not be refunded to those who cannot present valid student documents and refuse to buy a difference ticket.

There is no age limit for Eczacıbaşı Youth Ticket. Each event has its own age limit for entry. We kindly ask you to check the age limit before purchasing a ticket.

TULIP CARD MEMBERS

Priority sales will begin at 10.30 for Black and White Tulip members on Thursday, 27 June, and Red Tulip Card members on Friday, 28 June. The discount rates are 25% for Black and White Tulip Card members, and 15% for Red Tulip Card members. 

To become a Tulip Card member:

lalekart.iksv.org

We kindly ask you to be present in the hall at least 30 minutes before the start of the show and for security reasons, and not to carry any bags larger than your handbag. Luggage and large backpacks will not be accepted in the hall, and cloakroom service will not be provided.

WARNINGS AND REMINDERS

• We kindly request our viewers to be diligent to arrive on time for the performance. Audiences arriving late to the show will not be admitted to the hall, and tickets will not be refunded.
• It is forbidden to record the event with a camera, mobile phone and all kinds of recording devices.
• Children under the age of 13 will not be allowed entrance.
• Purchased tickets cannot be changed or returned unless the performance is canceled or its date is changed. In such cases, requests should be made before the announced date.
• Only one campaign and/or sales discount can be applied to each ticket.
• Venue or programme changes may occur due to reasons beyond control. The festival authority shall rearrange the new sitting order according to seat numbers on the tickets, providing the audience with the closest sitting positions. Tickets cannot be returned for the reason of venue or programme change
• A paramedical team and an ambulance will be present at the venue.