Sankai Juku: TOTEM—Void and Height

Sankai Juku: TOTEM—Void and Height is a dance work performed at NYU Skirball, running about 1 hour 15 minutes and open to all ages. It is the creation of Ushio Amagatsu, the Butoh master who shaped Sankai Juku for nearly fifty years, and was completed just before his death in 2024. TOTEM is his farewell: beneath a single monolithic form on stage, seven dancers move with shaved, chalked-white bodies, descending into gravity rather than resisting it. Carried by dancers who spent their lives inside his vision, it stands as a final testament from a company that has toured the world for half a century.