13. Yoshiyuki Takada: September 30, 1985
Japan’s Sankai Juku dance company had garnered an international reputation for its stunning images of life and death. At the summer Olympics the previous year held in Los Angeles, the troupe had one of the most memorable displays with an outdoor presentation that suspended four dancers like spiders, headfirst, very high from the ground from a local pavilion. They instantly became a sensation touring everywhere in North America.
One can only cheat death so often and on September 30, 1985, tragedy finally struck. Yoshiyuki Takada, the 31 year old dancer, was hanging from his ankles, 80 feet from the ground from atop Seattle’s Mutual Life Building when the rope parted. A thousand onlookers watched, perhaps hoping that a last minute restraint would stop the fall. The dancer never looked frightened holding a perfect tuck position until impact, perhaps not realizing himself what had happened. Initially people thought it was a mannequin but of course, the death was real.
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