In 2002, two years after joining Kim Itoh + the Glorious Future, young Japanese choreographer and dancer Ikuyo Kuroda founded her own company Batik. Last year she came to the attention of Dance Umbrella when she won first prize at the Toyota Choreography Awards for the female sextet Side B.

Kuroda’s work features looming shadows and rhythmic stomping bodies. She and her dancers play a game of hide and seek with faces alternately illuminated then obscured by falling hair from downcast heads, raised skirts or curtains. While highlighting parts of their bodies and the stage with hand held torches, the dancers are framed by bright lights only to disappear into blackout at the flick of a switch.

Kuroda’s choreography evokes rage, chaos and fear in an unpredictable mix that heralds the arrival of a major new talent.