Naraku奈落 (Abyss)

Artistic Director: Kushida Yoshimitsu
Dancers: Nakagawa Satoshi, Motojima Miwa, Yasuoka Yumika, Tazaki Mana, Ogawa Riku, Okamoto Aoi

The Coronet Theatre
(18-20 September 2025)

Review by Alice Baldock

Kushida Yoshimitsu and Dance Company Lasta’s UK premiere of Naraku 奈落, translated as ‘Abyss’ is dark, compelling, and engrossingly watchable. The term refers to a Buddhist iteration of hell or purgatory, and this piece references elements of this mythology to uphold a story of male desire, ego, and obsession. The dance follows a man (performed by Nakagawa Satoshi) who, following his own violent actions, is drawn into some kind of hell or abyss, encounters various strange, monstrous, and demonic characters, who at turns tempt him, fight him, and ultimately appear to guide him back to what might be his own world.

The scenes that unfold are presided over by an ominous and omnipotent-seeming figure – perhaps a god, a judge, or Enma, the judge of the underworld who decides the fate of the dead. This figure, portrayed by choreographer Kushida Yoshimitsu, barely moves for the duration of the performance, or at least not in a perceptible way. At times throughout the piece his head is raised, others bowed, and his hands move on and off the table, but without the audience noticing he is moving. He is held accountable by another dancer, Okamoto Aoi, who acts as a narrator, repeating at several points ‘reality and fantasy are like two mirrors, reflecting each other and easily transcending the boundaries between them. The question is how to return from the fictional world to the real world, and how to connect the two.’ When this judge figure fails to stop the repeated acts of violence against women, in both the original world and the underworld, a climax of the dance comes when she demands of him, repeatedly, to do something about the horror unfolding before him. From here, the judge figure joins the other creatures of the underworld in a dynamic scene, ending with dancers’ coalesced and tangled around a chair, the starting point of the movement.

Movement is upheld by this clear narrative, and each dancer brings their own beautiful and horrific style to the performance. Motojima Miwa moves seamlessly between portraying sensuality and fear, enticement and revulsion, in ways that are evoke feelings of pain in the viewer. Her duet with Yasuoka Yumika as a kind-of demon, is sinuous and complements Yasuoka’s solo parts, which showcase her incredible strength and ballet training. Tazaki Mana’s ability to convulse in a way that is beyond human provides a contrast to the rest of her movement, which is surefooted and confident even as she explores the underworld. Though each of these women dancers appear over-subjected at times to violence at the hands of the male dancers (of which there is a content warning in the programme), their character’s resistance and complexity shine through.

Ogawa Riku’s portrayal of a monster or demon was one of the standout performances of the evening; his bodily expressivity evoking something heavily supernatural, terrifying, and at times comical. Particularly memorable is his duet with Nakagawa, where tension grows between the two from violence into a twisted kind of care. It echoes the earlier duet between Nakagawa and Motojima, where at times they seem to embrace and at others, he appear to be controlling her movements. Indeed, repetition is one of the effective tools in Kushida’s choreography of this piece; as certain scenes are repeated, the audience does not know which world they are inhabiting, deepening their engagement.

Incredible lighting design pulls the audience further into the dancer’s movements, truly evoking a hellish atmosphere as dancers are illuminated in turn by red and blue. The audience truly gets the sense of being pulled underground; as dancers’ movements become more and more horrifying, the lighting dims and grows to follow them. The music too, composed by Matsuda Motoi, creates strong tension across the two worlds the dancer’s flit across.

This UK premiere from Dance Company Lasta is a must-see piece this weekend, for anyone who wants to undertake a haunting choreographic journey.