SANKAIJUKU SETS U.S. TOUR

Seven months after dancer Yoshiyuki Takada accidentally fell to his death while hanging on a rope during an outdoor Sankaijuku performance in Seattle, the Japanese butoh group is returning to that city for two performances at the start of a two-month U.S. tour.

Again sponsored by On the Boards, Sankaijuku will perform April 17 and 18 in Seattle and then travel to New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota and Michigan. According to Bob Lo Bianco, director of International Production Associates, the managers of the U.S. tour, it was “an emotional and artistic decision” that led the five-member company to return to Seattle on an itinerary that otherwise includes no West Coast performances.

Toru Iwashita, an early member of Sankaijuku who had left the group, has now rejoined it. Lo Bianco confirmed that Takada’s death led Sankaijuku to omit performances of its outdoor “hanging dance” from the current tour. Descents from ropes in indoor Sankaijuku pieces have also been deleted, he said.