DANCE: EVENT OF THE WEEK
It takes a lot to look outlandish these days, but Sankai Juku manage it brilliantly. Shaven-headed, painted white and looking androgynous, this all-male company are Japan's best known exponents of Ankoko Butoh. This is an invented form which emerged from the ashes of the Second World War, Ankoko Butoh means Dance of Darkness and grafts some of the precepts of Western modern dance on to the traditions of Japanese theatre. Sankai Juku's version retains the shock value of their predecessors. Returning to London, they bring Shijims, a cosmic ceremonial in which they appear like moving clay sculptures. Expect stark, intense images, poised between pain and ecstasy, beauty and contortion, familiarity and weirdness.
Sankai Juku, Sadler's Wells. Rosebery Avenue, London EC1 (0171-863 8000) Mon-Fri, 8pm
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