When you think of Japanese performing arts, you might imagine the elegance of traditional Japanese dance, the haunting presence of Japanese butoh dance, or even the spine-tingling atmosphere of Japanese horror films. Yoshimitsu Kushida, the visionary choreographer behind Dance Company Lasta, takes all of these influences—and then bends them into something startling, visceral, and deeply contemporary.
In September 2025, The Coronet Theatre hosted Dance Company Lasta for their UK debut with Naraku, an original dance work that fuses horror aesthetics, avant-garde choreography, and existential themes of desire, distortion, and the fragile human body in motion. If you’ve ever wanted to see how far dance can go when it crosses boundaries—between genres, between cultures, between beauty and horror—Naraku is your chance.
Across three nights, The Coronet Theatre became a stage where the abyss is not feared but embraced — where the human body becomes both fragile and fearless.
The work is unsettling, hypnotic and unmistakably contemporary — Japanese dance that pushes well beyond the genre’s conventional contours. For London audiences, it was an opportunity to see one of Japan’s most inventive choreographers at the height of his powers.
From Okayama to the Global Stage
Born in 1980 in Okayama Prefecture, Yoshimitsu Kushida traces his journey into contemporary dance back to Japan’s experimental scene. His breakthrough came in 2007 when he joined the acclaimed Noism dance company, one of Japan’s most influential groups in pushing physical theatre beyond traditional boundaries. Touring internationally until 2012, he honed his craft as both performer and thinker, absorbing how stage performance could transcend language.
In 2013, he founded Dance Company Lasta, a collective dedicated to creating original dance works that challenge what audiences expect from Japanese dance. Since then, Kushida has choreographed dozens of works across stage and film over the past decade, moving fluidly between live stage and film. Along the way, he has picked up prestigious honours such as the Asahi Stage Arts Award and top prizes in choreography competitions across Europe and Japan.
The Dark Allure of Naraku
Image Credit: The Coronet Theatre. Photography by Hiroyasu Daido.
The centrepiece of Lasta’s Coronet debut, Naraku (奈落, meaning “hell” or “abyss”), dives deep into the unsettling but strangely beautiful territory where horror and dance collide. Drawing inspiration from Japanese horror cinema, Kushida draws on the eerie psychological tension of kūki o yomu (空気を読む) — Japan’s deep cultural sensitivity to reading the atmosphere of a room without words being spoken.
But this isn’t a straightforward horror show. Instead, Naraku is a horror dance fusion, a theatrical experiment where fear and beauty coexist. Dancers twist, distort, and unravel across the stage, embodying states of desire, pain, and loss. The result is both unsettling and mesmerising—stage performance that feels closer to a dream (or nightmare) than a narrative.
Existential Themes in Motion
Image credit:The Coronet Theatre, photography by Hiroyasu Daido
At the heart of Kushida’s choreography lies a persistent question: what does it mean to exist in a fragile human body? His work often explores haunting existential themes—the tension between loss and hope, the struggle for meaning, the inevitability of distortion and decay.
These preoccupations carry over from his dance films, such as Succession (継承), which screened at festivals in Paris, Venice, London, and Stockholm. In a 2024 interview with Sweden International Film Festival, Kushida explained that his art speaks to audiences searching for light in the face of despair. Rather than individual virtuosity, his focus is collective creation—Dance Company Lasta builds pieces that can be passed down, inherited, and reinterpreted, embodying the enduring spirit of Japan’s performing arts.
“For those asking what their existence means and struggling to make a living — regardless of race, age or gender.” – Yoshimitsu Kushida
Dance Company Lasta: Collective Visionaries
Unlike star-driven companies, Dance Company Lasta thrives on collaboration. Its members—including Satoshi Nakagawa, Miwa Motojima, Yumika Yasuoka, Mana Tazaki, Riku Ogawa, and Aoi Okamoto—embody Kushida’s vision of shared artistry.
The company has been invited to major international festivals, from Seoul to Busan, and their award-winning dance films (Naraku, Succession, Room) continue to gain recognition worldwide. Their work has been profiled by Theatre Weekly, highlighting their blend of avant-garde dance with cinematic atmosphere.
Their aesthetic merges the abstract with the visceral, leaning into the lineage of Japanese butoh dance while infusing it with modern soundscapes by composer Motoi Matsuda and stark costume design by hitoha.nasu. The results feel timeless yet fresh—tradition reborn for contemporary audiences.
Experience Naraku Live at The Coronet Theatre
London has no shortage of contemporary dance, but Naraku offers something distinctly different. It’s not just a performance—it’s an atmosphere, a cross-cultural performance that draws on Japanese horror, avant-garde choreography, and a uniquely Japanese sensibility of silence, tension, and release.
At The Coronet Theatre, the intimate setting amplifies the experience. You’ll feel the proximity of the dancers’ bodies as they contort and collapse, hear the silences between breaths, and sense the unsettling weight of the abyss Kushida conjures.
If you’re curious about contemporary dance but wary of getting lost in overly intellectual staging, Naraku strikes a perfect balance. It’s a work that speaks to the senses first—raw movement, haunting imagery, music that vibrates through the floor—and only later asks you to reflect on what it all means.
The Future of Japanese Choreography
Kushida stands as one of the most daring Japanese choreographers working today, blending influences from physical theatre, traditional Japanese dance, and cinema into works that defy easy categorisation. As he brings Dance Company Lasta to London, he continues to expand the conversation about what Japanese performing arts can look like in a global context.
With Naraku, he shows us that horror isn’t only for films, and dance isn’t only about beauty—it’s about pushing bodies and imaginations to their edge.
Event Details
Naraku by Dance Company Lasta
Where: The Coronet Theatre, Notting Hill, London
When: 18–20 September 2025 (run ended)
Tickets: Book here
