April 26, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan
Fuerza Bruta shows are a unique experience that combines music, dance, and acrobatics and takes place around, above, and through a standing crowd. I saw their WAYRA show in New York a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. In addition to being excited to see their performance again in general and being curious about what would be different for their Tokyo offering Fuerza Bruta WA!, being able to attend one of the two nights that Tsukasa Fujimoto and Maya Yukihi from one of my favorite wrestling promotions (Ice Ribbon) would be appearing was a fantastic additional treat.
The show itself was of course a tremendous amount of fun. It featured the same basic ideas and setups as the NY show, but with distinct Japanese themes and enough differences to make it its own experience. It’s an energetic, contagious spectacle from start to finish, easily captivating the crowd and keeping them full of anticipation to see what’s next.
On top of that since I went through Ice Ribbon as a special thing a small group of us were brought over to watch the show with Tsukka and Maya (when they weren’t participating) by a attendant from Fuerza Bruta for the group who always made sure we knew where to go, etc. Afterwards we each also got to get a picture with Tsukka and Maya, a really nice momento of the evening. Their participation in the show was great too. Both were wearing harnesses when we first met up, and a bit into the show they were raised into the ceiling with some of the regular performers. Later they danced through the crowd to a stage that then itself moved through the crowd to the center of the space. Really fun stuff.
Another cool aspect of the shows is the use of water, with performers running against sprays, mist being used while acrobats are swinging over the audience, and an incredible sequence where a a large, clear pool is lowered from the ceiling to just above the crowd’s head as people splash/swim/dance around in it. At one particularly enjoyable point for me they essentially had a water curtain running through the center splashing on the audience, and Tsukka stated splashing it towards me (which I of course responded in kind to 😉 ), resulting in me having a short water war with her and Maya. So amusing/awesome.
Standing out a bit in a Japanese crowd I also found myself the center of the performers’ attention a couple of times. I was near the center of the room when the crowd was split to form a corridor for someone to repel from the ceiling into and march towards the stage. He keyed in on me and stalked right up to me staring until we went forehead to forehead (which I clearly and gladly played along with) and he pushed me back a bit. Later while I was taking video of Tsukka and Maya dancing on the center stage the wandering drummer took notice of my Ice Ribbon t-shirt and gently poked at all the faces on it with his drumstick. This was all of course fantastic, but even without these personal experiences I was lucky enough to have the general atmosphere of the show with the show taking place IN the audience at several times and the general high level of interaction is incredible.
Last night was Tsukka and Maya’s final appearance so that part is no longer an option, but as I’ve been gushing about the show is a wonderful time in its own right and if anyone happens to be in Tokyo from now until May 6th I highly recommend catching it as it finishes its run.
Derailments of Thought 