She Walks In Beauty Like The Night @ The Annexe Gallery, Central Market KL, 17-20 July

Trust the ever-repressive Japanese to create a dance so dark, twisted and disturbing.... She Walks In Beauty Like The Night is a butoh performance. And that's not a bad word.

Drawing from the dark regions of our consciousness, butoh is a subversive dance that is at once bizarre, horrific and enlightening. If you fancy your sensibilities tickled with dance art that is morbid, thought-provoking and sometimes grotesque, then this dance inspired by Ankoku-Butoh (the dance of darkness)–founded by Tatsumi Hijikata during post-WWII Japan–will rock your socks.

She Walks In Beauty Like The Night is a full-length, three-part performance based on themes of creation (The Birth), human desires (Eight Ways of Suffering) and immaculate illusions (Reflection of The Moon in the Water). It is choreographed and directed by Lee Swee Keong and performed by Kiea Kuan Nam, Caecar Chong, YC Ooi and Lee himself with music by Chor Guan Ng, and image and costume design by Eric Choong.

Here's an introduction to butoh by one of the men who started it all, Tatsumi Hijikata:

She Walks In Beauty Like The Night goes on from Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 July, 8.15pm at The Annexe Gallery, Central Market KL. Tickets are RM40 and RM28 (students) by donation; RM20 for each student in groups of more than ten (student admission is limited to 60 seats per show).

Accompanying this are the Butoh Workshop and Butoh Jam. Details as follows:

Butoh Workshop
When: Saturday 12 July, 3pm-6pm
Where: The Annexe Gallery, Central Market
Admission: RM50, RM30 (students)

Nyoba Kan dancers Lee Swee Keong and Kiea Kuan Nam lead workshop participants in a meditative and therapeutic series of butoh-inspired exercises. The workshop is open to everyone. Limited spaces only.

Butoh Jam
When: Saturday 26 July, 8.30pm
Where: The Annexe Gallery, Central Market
Admission: RM20, RM10 (students) by donation

Lee Swee Keong and his butoh teacher Lena Ang collaborate for a must-watch one-off duet butoh performance that brings together two different yet complementary visions of butoh. Jerome Kugan provides the live musical accompaniment.

For the full synopses of festival events, go here. For enquiries e-mail Pang Khee Teik or Jerome Kugan, or dial 603-2070 1137.