STREET DANCE PERFORMANCE
Gilyak Amagasaki (born in Hokaido, Japan in 1930) has been performing
Street Dance since 1968.
Street Dance was one of the most popular street entertainments among common folks for centuries in Japan, but it has become a dying folk art in the past 50 years. Remembering the great joy, delight, fear, surprise and thrills he experienced from the street dances in his childhood, Gilyak wanted to bring back the almost forgotten Japanese folk theater to the street so that he could communicate closely and directly with common folks on the street, under the open sky and in direct contact with the earth.
His Dance of Requiem, “Jongara,” is based on a Japanese
folk song, expressing the sadness and distress of life. His view
of life is influenced by Zen philosophy: “Live in the moment
of Now.”
Gilyak has performed in China, England France, India, Korea,
Russia and the U.S.A. This is his third performance in New York
City.