Umusuna: Memories Before History at Peter Jay Sharp Building

On a stage dusted with sand, androgynous talc-covered bodies—with heads shaved and corsets cinched—trace graceful arcs through the grains, inscribing time. They are Sankai Juku, the incomparable Japanese dance troupe, who return to BAM for the first time in almost a decade. Typifying the Butoh tradition, which was born from the ashes of Hiroshima, Umusuna: Memories Before History probes the ravages of history to recover our original bond with the four elements. Gnarled hands, craned necks, and gaping mouths fold into a meditative procession of centered, impeccably controlled movement from which an austere beauty emerges.