New National Theatre held a dance concert Afternoon of Fauns and Nymphs , a gala performance with six contemporary dance works by six pairs of dancers and six choreographers. Danae first premiered at an evening of young choreographers and has been revived twice.
Zeus, with a burning desire for the princess Danae, transforms himself into golden rain in order to make love with her. Then Sakai goes into the wings of the stage and clashes into something there, with her getting mad at the staff and shouting, returning to the stage and they give a beautiful duet.
A somewhat weird, laid-back piece, but it was fun. Butterfly by Motoko Hirayama was the climax of the first half. This powerful, spellbinding piece was created in , then danced by Hirayama herself.
A larva grows into a chrysalis and then a butterfly appears, the two dancers express the mysterious birth and growth of insects, their lives and deaths. Risako Ikeda and Kosuke Okumura, dancers from National Ballet, fall down on the floor and stands up multiple times, leap, fall, lift each other, sometimes in harmony and other times slipping off, a symbol of reincarnation and mortality.
Ikeda, who usually dances princesses and soubrette roles, presents an entirely different side, powerful, intense and raw.
