“In “Before the Dawn,” Yumiko Yoshioka’s body became a menager­ie of strange creatures. A founding member of the all-female Butoh company Ariadone, she appeared in voluminous red robes, her face masked. When her hands emerged from the fabric, they skittered over her body like spiders or pecked at her flesh like birds. Eventually shedding much of her clothing, she made her body both a physical and an ab­stract object.” – Claudia La Rocco, “Plumbing the Depths in Vast Inner Landscapes”, The New York Times, 2005

“In “Eros and Thanatos,” the masterly Daisuke Yoshimoto followed a ragged red rib­bon from the back to the front of the stage. Covered in white paint and na­ked except for a thong, his taut body bent double, he walked in painstak­ing, tremblingly slow fashion. When he finally rose, his long gray hair fanned around his wild, heavily made-up eyes, and his body became a heaving, hyperarticulated landscape shifting against jarringly spliced music. It was easy to forget that this spooky, otherworldly creature was human.” – Claudia La Rocco, “Plumbing the Depths in Vast Inner Landscapes”, The New York Times, 2005

“‘Handsome Blue’ Sky revolves around four supple, brass-colored metallic sheets that allude to costumes in Hijikata’s seminal “Rebellion of the Body (Nikutai no Hanran),” which the Edge performers manipulate to light-reflecting, crashing effect. The heart of Mr. Murobushi’s piece is a duet for him and one of the sheets, which becomes his world before our eyes. The four bodies do go through transformations of a sort, though nothing more stirring or revelatory than the familiar physical shape-play of countless late-20th-century Western dances. The power of a grotesque hunch lies not in its look or the skill with which it was … Continued

“Shinichi Koga’s Love Is Shock was, as befits a final piece, the strongest of the afternoon. It involved all the elements of the other two pieces: use of the imagination, forcing the audience members to question what they think are their perceptions, movements that seemed mundane but that involved great body control, and unexpected costume elements. However, in this case, those elements came together. Mr. Koga’s body, in its loose robes, continually changed size and shape. If what he was after was not exactly clear, his piece had an irrefutable internal logic, even as it left us questioning. Surely this … Continued