The National Ballet of Japan gave its first overseas performance in 16 years in London on Thursday, with Miyako Yoshida, formerly a principal dancer in the city’s Royal Ballet, directing the presentation.
The five-show production of “Giselle” also marks the British debut of the dance company under the New National Theatre, Tokyo, as well as the first show it has organized outside the country. The Japanese troupe last performed overseas in 2009, when it appeared in Moscow at the invitation of the Russian government.
The opening night was a roaring success, with the over 2,000-strong audience at the 19th century Royal Opera House erupting into rapturous applause as dancers took to the stage for a curtain call.
Speaking with Kyodo News after the show, Yoshida said, “The dancers all did really well…there was something special about the atmosphere in the concert hall tonight.”
“I’m really pleased everyone danced so energetically,” she added.
Yoshida initially came to study ballet in Britain in 1983 and went on to become the first-ever Japanese principal dancer in the Royal Ballet in 1995.
In a media preview showcase on Tuesday, she said of the Japanese ballet founded in 1997, “We are still a young company, so I just want the world to know us.”
“I hope this performance will become a bridge between the U.K. and Japan.”
In the lead-up to the sold-out event, the Tokyo-based troupe’s visit to Britain has generated significant interest and media attention.
Reacting to the performance, a 52-year-old ballet fan from London said, “I think the Japanese ballet dancers are very, very precise. They’re so in time it’s sort of perfect.”
“I thought it was beautiful, I thought it was amazing.”
Principal dancer Yui Yonezawa expressed her happiness at being able to dance in London. The ballerina was hospitalized in the middle of last year before undergoing an eight-hour surgery in November that seemed to leave her hopes of performing in jeopardy.
Speaking to journalists, she said, “I cherish even simple moments, and just living in this moment is such a wonderful thing.”
Yonezawa plays the titular heroine Giselle, a peasant girl who dies after discovering her lover’s identity and finds herself in the realm of ghosts.
