Ship in a View

Japanese dance-theater troupe Pappa Tarahumara creates expressive and poignant visual spectacles. Drawing on dreams and memories of his seaside Japanese home, the troupe’s artistic director Hiroshi Koike conjures images at once hallucinatory, disturbing, and droll in Ship in a View. A small vessel sails across the stage at a stately pace. A pole rises skyward, its flag buffeted by the wind.

Singing, foghorns, and eerie lamentations fill the air as the dancers emerge from the shadows. Initially disconnected, the twelve performers’ movements transform into clusters of vibrant, full-out dancing. When hundreds of flickering bulbs descend from the ceiling to the stage, bathing the whirling bodies in a silvery light, it’s unclear if this is the past, present, or future. What is certain is that there is nothing quite like entering–if only briefly–Koike’s surreal world.

Music by Masahiro Sugaya
Costume design by Koji Hamai and Ryoichi Isomoto
Lighting design by Yukiko Sekine