Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Sushi Tap 2024
Tap Do! (Tokyo)
Genre: Comedic, Dance, Dance and Movement Theatre, Tap
Venue: Greenside at George Street
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Sushi Tap bring their joyous and colourful showcase of various entertaining numbers to Edinburgh. The five performers show their skills with much enthusiasm that is infectious and has the audience enthralled from the beginning.
Review
You know instantly that a show won’t be a serious affair when a Japanese dance troupe calls itself ‘Sushi Tap’. However, this performance is so much fun, I wish Fringe Review had a ‘feel good’ category.
The show starts with an interactive warmup number, that gets everyone in the audience in the right mood. Young and old are cajoled into various tasks by excellent mime performed by Poke once again putting to the test that Theatre and especially Dance is a universal language. This won’t be the only audience interaction number and by the end of the show we all have learned a few Japanese words as well as had a fabulous time.
Whatever the visual equivalent of ‘tongue in cheek’ is called, the first number certainly is it. In shrimp pink suits the dancers (the ladies Kei, Naomi, Moeko and Maki support the aforementioned Poke, the only guy) showcase their particular skillset. There is tap, of course, but also a bit of rhythmic gymnastics, clowning, baton twirling and juggling with music from Western classical to traditional Japanese music. Nothing is holy, but every music style is utterly respected. The art is taken seriously, the dancers just don’t take themselves particularly seriously. It becomes quickly apparent that the performers enjoy their work greatly and this joy is infectious. The big smiles on stage are nearly instantly mirrored by the audience.
One highlight is an ernest and skillfully executed Irish dance number by the four women in tap shoes! I am not sure whether it makes the whole affair easier considering the dancers are trained in tap or a lot harder … the shape of the shoes are just plain wrong. It looks impressive and sounds right.
The numbers alternate between traditional high skill dance numbers and extreme silliness only to melt into each other towards the end of the show. Time flies and the show feels too short, even though it is an hour long.
This is a joyous performance piece where one never knows what to expect. Whatever you might want to bet on is definitely not the next number. Every element in the show seems so easy only the sweat dripping of the performers faces gives a hint how hard they are working to entertain us.
This is a production at Greenside’s new venue in George Street and the studio in which this show was performed has excellent sightlines, so even smaller audience members will be able to see the fast footwork.
