Michael Sakamoto was performing at Winter Jazzfest in New York City in 2024 when he had an epiphany of sorts.
The dancer was part of a tribute concert to the late Japanese musician, composer and actor Ryuichi Sakamoto (no relation), who had died the previous year. Michael Sakamoto took the stage along with his friend and occasional collaborator Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky. One of the most innovative artists in electronic music, Miller has worked with everyone from the rock band Sonic Youth to rap group Public Enemy, as well as with Ryuichi himself. Ryuichi, considered by many the most successful, well-known Japanese musician of his time, worked in a multitude of genres and formats, including electro-pop, rock, classical, modern film scores, video game soundtracks, operas and even ringtones.
“Paul and I did a version of one of Ryuichi’s biggest hits, ‘Riot in Lagos,’” Sakamoto recalled. “The two of us had been trying to create something together for a while, and the performance went so well, we turned to each other and said, ‘Hey, I think this it.’”
Out of that fateful day came “time/life/beauty,” a new piece inspired by the Grammy- and Oscar-winning Ryuichi, in which Sakamoto and Miller fuse Japanese butoh theater — a post-World War II avant-garde form featuring emotive, often slow and controlled movements — with hip-hop. The multimedia performance also features Palestinian American dancer Mohammed Smahneh, aka Barges. They present “time/life/beauty” this Friday and Saturday, March 6 and 7, at Middlebury College’s Mahaney Arts Center. Sakamoto will also be on campus on Wednesday, March 4, to lead a free public workshop.
Sakamoto, who is director of the Asian and Asian American Arts and Culture Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center, recently spoke with Seven Days about Ryuichi, the surprising commonalities between butoh and hip-hop, and turning breakup songs into laments about late-stage capitalism.
What about Ryuichi and his work called you to cocreate “time/life/beauty?”
Paul and I both love Ryuichi — Paul even toured Japan with him in the ’90s. Honestly, I think there are a few reasons. Ryuichi was a big environmental and anti-war activist, which is very near and dear to our hearts. But he also helped create a kind of global, multicultural sound he called being “outer national,” fusing Asian and African music. And Paul and I have both worked a lot with Afro Asian culture projects, so it felt very organic to put together this show, which isn’t a pure tribute but a piece inspired by him.
Ryuichi’s body of work is so diverse. He was in the synth band Yellow Magic Orchestra, and he won an Oscar for scoring The Revenant. He’s made pop, electronic and experimental music … where do you even start?
I know! Each of his records seemed to have something trailblazing on it. Yellow Magic Orchestra was the first band to use an 808 drum machine on record. An entire generation of Black and brown artists used the 808 to help invent hip-hop. His whole career was just a confluence about all the things Paul and I care about in music and life, so we knew it was time to give Ryuichi his flowers.
Each of his records seemed to have something trailblazing on it.
Michael Sakamoto
The piece itself is divided into three parts, right?
Yes! “Gods and Monsters,” “asymm” and “Beautiful Blue Sky.” The latter features Barges, an incredible contemporary dancer, who also beatboxes and raps. He’s Palestinian American, so there’s cultural and artistic layering and mixing going on, for sure. We’re interpreting Ryuichi’s oeuvre in a lot of different ways throughout the show. The climax of my solo is my remix of “Bibo no Aozora,” one of his most beloved songs. It’s a breakup song, but I do it as a breakup with capitalism. It’s an autobiographical performance as growing up as a Japanese American.
Was that one of the reasons for utilizing butoh dancing in the piece?
Well, butoh is my background as a performer. I’m not a traditional butoh dancer in the visual aesthetic — no white makeup. It’s more about the philosophy and attitude toward the concepts of butoh, which is the body in crisis. The dance came out of post-World War II Japan, when everyone was having this mass identity crisis because the U.S. was essentially rebuilding Japanese culture in its own image. So the dancers were trying to interpret that with their movements. Butoh is a technique, a way of reflecting on yourself and accepting things like chaos in yourself and in your world. How do you hold that ambiguity on stage? That’s the mission.
There’s a lot of crossover between butoh and hip-hop.
There is, and the average person isn’t really aware of those connections. Both art forms were born out of chaos, contradictions and crisis. 1950s Tokyo and 1970s Bronx had a lot of similarities, as far as how artists were interpreting society. Both hip-hop and butoh were signs of rebellion in their own way.
What makes butoh such a unique form of dance?
Butoh choreography works in image sequences as opposed to set, prescribed movements. For example, a butoh exercise might feature me telling you to envision a line of cockroaches on your arm, and you have to flick your arm to get them off. But they land directly in your mouth instead. And you’re really hungry, so you have to eat them, but it’s disgusting. Now show me that ambiguity, that disgust and edge in your movements. And each dancer will interpret that differently.
Will butoh instruction be a part of the workshop you’re hosting at Middlebury before the performances?
Absolutely. I’m hosting a program called “Body/Mind/Funk/Time.” It’s an hour-and-a-half workshop that serves as a sort of typical first dip of the toes in the way I think about movement. I blend butoh and house dancing, which is a lot of fun. I’m not a house dancer per se, but I like to blend the vocabulary of those two practices to expand the participants’ awareness of their own bodies. I wanted to create space for the local community to experience an energetic reflection of itself. ➆
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Body of Work | Dancer Michael Sakamoto on “time/life/beauty,” his hip-hop and butoh tribute to late visionary musician Ryuichi Sakamoto”
This article appears in March 4 • 2026.
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