There are mutual squeals of delight when Belgian dance artist Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Spanish flamenco dancer Maria Pages are reunited after "far too long" at a Tokyo rehearsal studio.
Pages, 54, has flown in from Madrid to promote the pair's 2009 work "Dunas" ("Dunes"), which sees its Japan premiere this month at the Orchard Hall in Shibuya Ward — just down the road from the studio we are all sitting in.
Cherkaoui, 42, is in Tokyo to direct an all-Japanese cast in a run of his play "Pluto," based on the Naoki Urasawa manga of the same name — though by the look of him, he's happy to join the interview just so he can spend more time with his friend and collaborator.