Japanese make a leap of imagination

Mar 5 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Dancer Kayo Mikami performs the Ankoku Butoh at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool _320

DANCERS from Japanese company Torifune Butohsha held a dress rehearsal ahead of their sell-out performance in Liverpool last night.

Kenka (Consecration of Flowers), at the Unity Theatre, was part of the programme of the dance festival Leap 08.

Butoh is a form of dance devised in Japan in the 1950s, which moved away from tradition and placed an emphasis on expression and imagination rather than specific movements.

Production co-ordinator Marc Sebastian-Jones, based in the Far East but originally from Cheshire, said: “It is really satisfy- ing bringing it back to Cheshire and Merseyside. We could have gone to London but this was really exciting. We sold out at the Brindley in Runcorn last Friday and the reaction has been fantastic.”