Tobari by Sankai Juku Writing Trial

Sankai Juku
Tobari- As if in an Inexhaustible Flux
presented by DanceHouse
Vancouver Playhouse
5 Nov 2010

In the words of artistic director, choreographer and designer Ushio Amagatsu, Tobari, in Japanese, “is a veil of fabric hung in a space as a partition. Since olden times, tobari has been used poetically to express the passage from day to night in expressions like wrapped in the veil of night.”

The work is divided into seven scenes with titles like: From Unlimited Nothingness, Reflecting on Each Other, A Vertical Dream of the Future, and In an Inexhaustible Flux.

White, textured stage.
Black oval cuts across centre.
White reflects under,
Drawn to the glow.
Top tinted blue.

Show starts
Soloist gestures
British/Canadian eyes see a peace sign.
Space, marked!
Movements cut through time.
Space of body, marked!
Long gaze to the horizon line
Expansiveness lies beyond sight.

Hovering centre.
Bended knees just off ground.
Slow walks to the edge and...
Physics and skepticism tested
Hover gone.
Dancer leaves.
Hover re-created.

Bodies, all knowing, wise without force, capable without pride, gracious without righteousness, skilled without pretension.

Reveal starry skies
Orbit centrality.
...placing feet in the spaces of feet before.
Intimacy.
Respectful consideration for
Already-marked space.
Constantly moving
Territory, marked?
A defense?
Continuity.
Life?

In the middle of the inexhaustible flux, not sure of its beginning or its end, yet its existence defines our own.

Planet revolves
Oval Hovers.
Earth?
Reflections.
Scene and seen.
Nature and Experience.
Steady, inevitable.
Piercing /caressing.
Life. Death.


Personal moments of realisation only change our personal perceptions of the world. They do not and can not affect the way in which the ‘world’ turns.


Sophisticated.
Specific.
Minimal.
Beautiful.
Torsos,
Legs,
Strong.
Supple...
Hands light and percussive, holding petals, sensing air.

Synchronous technical feats.
Four: elbow, forearm, drop body, drop hips, turn onto backs, pause, flip, rest.
Six: kneeling, heads dropped, hands reaching up.
Repetition (a direction, a move, a speed) sets up the meditative.
Unified repetition.

Double time gestures feel quadruple time against the butoh-slow.
Punctuating the meditative.
Stacatto, theatrical-ity and practical-ity, scuttles and stops.
Mark scene.
New.

Night?
Dark blue dress robes
Waist-to-knee orange,/black/white
Brief release from chalk covered, bare chests
Decorative, processional.
Grateful contrast.
Night.

Solo contrasts groups.
Face creates images
Open hands open more
Action reveals action

Mesmerizing.
Hallucinatory.
Revolving.
Indulgent?
On reflection...

Forbearance, compassion, tolerance, liberality attract/repel restraint, necessity, strictness,moderation.


Generosity.
Invitation.
Graciousness.
Transparent authenticity.
Hands raise slowly to hearts.
Connected in the current of a wave.



Claire French © 2010