TOTEM — Void and Height

For nearly fifty years, Ushio Amagatsu shaped Sankai Juku into one of the most singular forces in world dance. TOTEM is his farewell.

A single monolithic form presides over the stage. Beneath it, the company moves in Amagatsu’s unmistakable idiom: bodies shaved and chalked white, descending into gravity rather than resisting it, a raised arm taking a full minute to fall. Butoh at its most austere and most transcendent, where stillness and transformation weigh the same.

Completed just before the choreographer’s death in 2024, TOTEM stands as a final testament, carried by the seven dancers who spent their lives inside his vision. Sankai Juku has brought this art to audiences across the globe for half a century. This is where it comes to rest.