There is perhaps no more salient demonstration of the attenuated state of the classical ballet than the number of ethnic dance troupes being showcased this autumn in New York. These range all the way from the traditional folkloric to the contemporary postmodern, and the largest contingent is Japanese, with four troupes performing within a single two-week period in late September and early October. The season opened on September 18 with the Japanese modern-dance company Sankai Juku, which presented its ninety-minute dance drama “The Egg Stands Out of Curiosity” for a week at City Center as the first leg of a three-month North American tour.

Sankai Juku is an exemplar of the genre known as Butoh, which evolved in the 1960s as a reaction against the emotional restriction and rigid stylization of such classical Japanese theatrical forms as Kabuki and Noh. The creators of Butoh sought a dance theater not tied to the restraints of tradition and capable of the personal expression of the individual dancer. Or so they claim. In practice, Butoh—at least as currently purveyed by Sankai Juku—appears to these Western eyes as restricted, stylized, rigid, ritualized, unindividuated, and hierarchical as any of the traditional Japanese forms. It has simply chosen to abide by a different, self-imposed set of restrictions.

Obscurantism also seems to be high on the list of Sankai Juku’s attributes.

Obscurantism also seems to be high on the list of Sankai Juku’s attributes. The narrative of “The Egg Stands Out of Curiosity”