Dance Company Lasta, helmed by choreographer and Artistic Director Yoshimitsu Kushida, brought Naraku 奈落 (Abyss) — a daring contemporary Japanese dance piece — to London in September 2025. Internationally acclaimed choreographer and dancer Yoshimitsu Kushida immersed the audience into a surreal dreamscape where reality and fantasy intertwined.
Founded in 2013, Dance Company Lasta is one of Tokyo’s most daring contemporary ensembles, creating emotionally potent, aesthetically striking performances. Under Kushida’s direction, the company has evolved into an internationally acclaimed contemporary troupe, deeply committed to creating unforgettable works that resonate long after the curtain falls.
Schedule:
Venue:
The Coronet Theatre
103 Notting Hill Gate, W11 3LB, London, UK
Running Time:
Approximately 80 minutes, with no intermission.
A man sits alone, haunted by a mysterious presence. What begins as attraction soon becomes an intoxicating force that draws out his possessiveness, jealousy, and need for control. As his dream self battles his real self, his fantasies intensify until he reaches the edge of the abyss. Strange and compelling figures appear, tempting, guiding, and ultimately pulling him back from the void.
“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.”
★★★★
“Naraku (Abyss) is a hugely exciting production that challenges normality, reimagining ways to articulate emotional understanding through physical enactment. It offers a truly extraordinary performance from a dazzlingly gifted company.”
“As the climax approaches, an almost fever dream takes over, at the edge of the abyss of human decline: scarlet colouring floods the stage, creating a devilish Hell, where the dancers’ bodies twist and intertwine in grotesque shapes reminiscent of a Hieronymus Bosch fantasy world.”
★★★★“This translates as The Abyss. The choreographer is Yoshimitsu Kushida. A sort of Japanese Pina Bausch. In other words, radical, in-your-face, no-holds-barred cutting-edge dance. The product does exactly what it says on the tin, to quote a famous advert. This show is not for the faint-hearted or the easily offended. It’s erotic, violent and disturbing. So please don’t go if you get easily triggered by those emotions. However, if you are up for it, then this is a spectacularly stunning and stimulating piece of Japanese dance macabre.”
★★★☆“a beautiful if slightly distant performance” “Naraku, Japanese for ‘Abyss’, opens with a visceral atmospheric statement and pretty much stays with it from there on in. Brought to us by Dance Company Lasta, it entrances and unnerves with equal intensity.”
“Kushida Yoshimitsu and Dance Company Lasta’s UK premiere of Naraku, translated as ‘Abyss’ is dark, compelling, and engrossingly watchable.,”
“This is a must-see piece this weekend, for anyone who wants to undertake a haunting choreographic journey.
“Kushida highlights the unbearable darkness of desire, where attraction flips into domination. The choreography oscillates between the erotic, the grotesque, and the poignantly beautiful.”
“It drags the audience into a cultural nightmare. At the boundary of absurdity and oppression, Naraku reveals Japanese performance’s persistent fascination with extremity.”
