Tokyo Decadance – bringing the Underground up

Tokyo Decadance brings the Underground above Ground
Dance event mixes the unmixable

Tokyo Decadance was created by Adrien Le Danois of France

Deep underground, a myriad of weird and fantastical shapes move and groove to an eclectic beat and the sway of pulsating strobe lights. It’s Tokyo Decadance an underground (literally!) dance scene that is fast making its presence felt on the surface world.

Tokyo Decadance is an ecletic melting pot of underground cultures

There is no rhyme or reason to the costumes or themes in which the performers and participants come in. There are psychedelic psycho clowns, cat people who looked like they’ve escaped from a Japanese production of Broadway’s Cats, naughty nurses, light saber wielding cyborgs, Victorian Era vampires, dastardly devils, Gothic school girl Lolita’s, luscious hula girls, dancing doctors, and variety of types that defy labeling.

A cat and a devil carvorting

Tokyo Decadance started almost three years ago as the brainchild of Adrien Le Danois, a noted French Drag Queen of the Parisian scene. He moved to Japan in 2003 where he later created Tokyo Decadance. Decadance is a melting pot of various underground cultures in Japanese society. What was thought unmixable, Decadance mixed. Dark cyberpunks dance alongside genki nouveau geisha while outrageously-dressed anime geeks dance alongside suited salarymen.

The organizers describe the phenomenon as follows:

“Tokyo Decadance became the ‘rendez-vous’ of gothic, cyberpunk, fetish, manga heroine, lolitas, yamanbas, ko gyaru, drag queen, punk, tokyo jet-set and other partymonsters, but also salaryman and ‘normal people’ love Tokyo Decadance, especially because of its ENERGY!!!”

In its beginnings, Tokyo Decandance was influenced by the street styles of the various fashion subcultures of Tokyo. Now Tokyo Decadance is influencing those street styles.

Tokyo Decadance is not just a dance scene. There are number of performances at each of the shows running from fire shows, martial arts demos mixed with dance, theater, exotic dancing, and a little bondage to keep things interesting.

Tokyo Decadance has now become practically a worldwide event with shows taking place in a number of cities around the world. Decadance has been invited to perform in several distinguished venues such as the Enghein Center museum and the Salon of Pret a Porter in France.

A cyborg bouncer with his trusty lightsaber makes sure no one gets too out-of-hand

Overall its a funtime to let oneself go and a great place to meet and/or get beaten by some interestingly unique people.