At Ikebukuro’s Mikado, the ribbons come from the seats

At the Mikado strip theater’s January anniversary show in Toshima, Tokyo, ribbons flew in from three directions during one dance and from four during another. Even a regular used to seeing throws from both sides of the stage was surprised. The people throwing them were fans. The dancer Rio built a throw into one of her numbers. At the end of a sequence, she wanted the ribbon to fall across her open palm so she could close her fingers around it. She describes getting chills when the throw and the dance hit the same beat. From the seats, one experienced thrower keeps his eyes off the dancer so the roll won’t go straight into her. He barely sees the dance at the moment he’s part of it. Mikado can ask someone to put a prop away even when the dancer has said yes. People have told the theater they had trouble following the dance with a loud tambourine or a bright light right beside their seat.