Dance Manga

The Boy Blue Entertainment’s new full length production The Five and the Prophecy of Prana, debuting at the Millennium Forum in Derry-Londonderry (City of Culture 2013), is the latest creation to combine dance with the Japanese comic art, manga. Since the 1970s, and the publication of Swan, ballet stories and the adventures of dancers have been produced in manga form. These comics inspired multiple generations of would-be ballerinas inJapan to take up dancing. More recently however, the popularity of manga outside ofJapan has increased significantly. Consequently, not only are Ballet Manga books being published in Europe andAmerica, manga has influenced dancers and choreographers to produce some truly unique performances, which incorporate the excitement of the comics. The Five and the Prophecy of Prana follows the story of five young troublemakers who are sent to a rehabilitation centre run by the Grand Master of the Pih Poh Fu martial arts and Guardian of Prana. When another rebellious Guardian tries to seize power the five are forced to fight against evil in order to restore peace. Produced by Kenrick Sandy, who famously choreographed the London Olympics Opening Ceremony, in collaboration with the manga artist Akio Tanaka it is ‘like a live anime on stage’. Sandy, whose Olivier award-winning Pied Piper helped firmly establish the Boy Blue Entertainment hip-hop dance company on the hip-hop theatre scene in 2006, has this time incorporated martial arts with hip hop to create ‘a cross between the world’s coolest boxercise class and a stop-motion animation Kung Fu movie’. Opening in Derry-Londonderry on October 2^nd the production will then be showed at the Barbican in London from October 22^nd to November 2^nd 2013. Kenrick Sandy is not the only dancer experimenting with magna. In August the ballet star Steven McRae published the first series of Ballet Hero Fantasy. Steven McRae and manga artist Takafumi Adachi will produce five episodes featuring classic ballets. The next episode, which incorporates the story ofSwanLake, will be published in November. Ballet Manga played a significant role in the increased interest in dancing in Japan. In Dancewear Central's opinion though, its rising popularity throughout the rest of the world therefore, can only mean good things for dance.