I had a wonderful Birthday.
Jonathan & our friends planned for me to see "Sankai Juku" for my Birthday with them.
I have been watching them dance since the 80s.
Special thing about the night was that I met two dancers from that company back stage at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea in NYC.
Jonathan became Facebook friends with them few weeks ago, so he asked them to meet us after the performance.
They kindly agreed with him to do so. I did meet them right after the Curtain Call.
Not just meet them, we had a late supper together. I had a lovely few hours with my friends include my 2 new dancer friends.
You should try to see them perform. They are fantastic !
They are at "JOYCE" until 17th.
If you love "Butoh" a very special kind of dance from Japan, you already know who they are.
They are one of my favorite dance companies. I would say "Sankai Juku" is the most well known "Butoh" company in the world.
I start watching them before I moved to this city. I was student in Art School when I had an introduction to "Butoh" by my drawing teacher. It was in Tokyo. In Japan "Butoh" was not popular back then. Especialy among Japanese. I still remember that more than half of the audiences were Foreigners. I remember, only one other student in the class and I stayed all the way to the end. The moment I stepped into this house in Tokyo, I felt very strange & something very eeire, and something sadly wonderful & dark excitement all at once.
They were performing in the town house which was made into a "ButohTheater" in the middle of residential area of Tokyo, a neighborhood call "Meguro".
I do remember as we entered the house,we had to take off our shoes then ga ve them to a man who was putting our shoes onto wooden shelves. Later I leared that the man was "Tatsumi Hijikata" one of creators of "Butoh". I'm not clear about how "Butoh" was born, but my understanding is, that in late 60's in Tokyo, the "Butoh" movement was born. People were calling them "Ankoku Butoh". (Dance of Darkness) It was hellish and mysterious. I had never seen such a performance until that day.
So from that day on I was hooked. I did try to see as much "Butoh" as I could. My favorite was "Dai Rakuda Kan". One performance I still remember vividly happened at "Futago Tamagawa" where you have to walk to the River-bank, then waited until it got dark. Suddenly spot lights hit the river water surface, we could see something is moving. That was the shaved heads and naked bodies crawling out of the water, that was how performance started. I still remember that night very well. Still it was the most shocking & exciting dance I have ever seen up to this day.
Ushio Amagatsu was one of dancers that night. Years later, he created "Sankai Juku" and he is still dancing. He is still a fantastic dancer !
I hope to see my new friends again before they leave to Chicago.
By the way, the seat number on a ticket was my birthdate. And I had chance to meet two not just one dancer from my favorite dance company from Japan.
So, that was my birthday. I had never had a birthday like this before !
OH, there was one super special Birthday I had !! Jonathan organized it for me years ago.
I was in Paris to celebrate my big one with our friends from many different countries.
They all flew into Paris for the Lunch.
I must say that one was the Best. It is impossible to top that one. That Lunch was more than one year's planning to make it happen.
Can you imagine seeing your best friends in a restaurant located on top of the building overlooking Notre Dame and the Seine. From your table you could see from the Eiffel Tower to Sacre Coeur to the Bastille !
I can tell you more about that special day sometime...
But this Birthday comes in second, no doubt !!
By the way, when we met the 2 dancers after they took off the special make-up, they are just looked like any other Japanese who may be living somewhere in the Village.
I always thought that "Butoh Dancers" are a different species !
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