Usio Amagatsu

Born in Yokosuka ( Kanagawa Prefecture ) in 1949. In 1975 he founded the troupe "Sankai Juku."

Prior to his international recognition in 1980, he created the performances of Amagatsu Sho (1977), Kinkan Shonen (1978), and Sholiba (1979). Since 1981, France and the Theater de la Ville in Paris have become a new place of creativity and work on performances, in the same year Bakki was staged for the Avignon festival . At the Theater de la Ville, Paris, he created in a row Jomon Sho (1982), Netsu no Katachi (1984), Unetsu (1986), Shijima (1988), Omote (1991), Yuragi (1993), Hiyomeki (1995), Hibiki (1998), Kagemi (2000), Utsuri (2003), Toki (2005), Tobari (2008) and Kara Mi (2010).

Amagatsu also works independently of Sankai Juku. In 1988, he created the Fushi performance at the invitation of the Jacob Pillow Foundation in the United States , to the music of Philip Glass . In 1989, he was appointed artistic director of the Spiral Hall in Tokyo , where he directed Apocalypse (1989) and Fifth-V (1990). In February 1997, he staged "The Duke's Bluebeard Castle" by Bela Bartok under the musical direction of Peter Eötvös at the Tokyo International Forum . In March 1998, at the Lyon National Opera, France, he staged the opera Three Sisters by Peter Etches (world premiere), which received the Prix du Syndicat National de la Critique, France. “Three Sisters” could be seen in the 2001-2002 season at the Chatelet Theater in Paris, at the Royal Theater de La Monnet in Brussels , at the Lyon National Opera, and at the 2002 Winner Festwochen festival in Austria . In March 2008, Amagatsu staged Lady Sarashina, an opera by Peter Etves at the Lyon National Opera (world premiere). Lady Sarashina again received the Prix du Syndicat National de la Critique, and was also featured at Opera Comique in February 2009.

In addition, Amagatsu presided over the jury of the International Meeting of Dance of Bagnolet in 1992 and this year became the holder of the Order of Arts and Literature of the French Ministry of Culture.

In February 2002, the Hibiki performance received the 26th Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Modern Ballet. In 2004, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Amagatsu was awarded the Geijyutsu Sensho Prize (Art Promotion Prize) for her outstanding artistic achievements. In 2007, Toki won the 6th Asahi Performing Arts Awards Grand Prix and the Sankai Juku troupe received a special grant from KIRIN. In July 2011, Usio Amagatsu presided over the jury of the 10th International Choreographic Competition of the National Dance Academy Grand Theater in Italy. In November 2011, he received the Purple Ribbon Medal of the Government of Japan.

Usio Amagatsu is the director, choreographer and stage designer of all the troupe's performances. He sees Butoh as a “dialogue with gravity." Based on this, he developed his own method of studying phenomena of an internal nature that are universal for all human beings, for example, birth and death. Amagatsu's work has been recognized internationally due to the original use of body language, the universal nature of those performances and the power of aesthetic expression.

• Amagatsu's profile on the Sankai Juku English site
• Official Sankai Juku site
• Official Dairakakudakan site
• Dances of being . "Tobari" of the Japanese troupe "Sankai Juku" on the stage of RAMT. Newspaper Kommersant, No. 94 (4879), 05/26/2012