Sankai Juku
Tue., Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m., $30-$50, Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut St., 215-898-3900
dance
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The dance company Sankai Juku plays the Annenberg Center on Halloween, and boy will they be dressed for the occasion. The seven men sport gauzy robes, shaved heads and bodies fully covered in white powder. These costumes, however, are their usual garb. Sankai Juku's appearance draws from the Butoh tradition, a Japanese post-World War II experimental dance form that is as much about a frame of mind as it is about a physical state of being. For Sankai Juku that means creating works where the movement aims for meditative spiritual transcendence. The gestures are often minimalist and achingly slow, at least to Western eyes that are generally more accustomed to action-oriented dance.
Here these men present Kagemi: Beyond the Metaphors of Mirrors, featuring a spare but visually striking set built of water, sand, ash, blood and giant lotus flowers. Its seven scenes offer abstract reflections on the meaning of life, death and beauty, via a series of allegorical transformations of an ambiguous nature. Like the meaning of life, it's what you make of it, yet regardless of how you interpret this performance, Sankai Juku offers an intense sensory experience.
Tue., Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m., $30-$50, Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut St., 215-898-3900, www.annenbergcenter.org.
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