Hana Sakai

Hana Sakai is Japan’s leading prima ballerina known for her charisma and unparalleled artistic expression. Her undeniable skills and achievements in classical ballet made her a driving force for the New National Theater, Tokyo in its early days, and led to starring roles in musical theater. Her pursuit of contemporary dance has led her to form a dance unit and continue her deep engagement with the creation process. In recent years, she has been collaborating with theater director and playwright Toshiki Okada to comically dissect the world of classical ballet through both an objective and personal lens as a prima ballerina, garnering attention for creating unique works that blend ballet and theater. In this interview, we dive into the prowess of this legendary artist—a ballet dancer who leaps through the art form’s age barrier and continues to expand her possibilities within the field of dance.

Interview/text: Ayako Takahashi
English Translation: Hibiki Mizuno, Ben Cagan (Art Translators Collective)

You’ve mentioned that your mother’s love of ballet led to your start at the age of five.

Yes, that’s right. My mother lived in London during high school, and she often went to see performances by the likes of The Royal Ballet and dreamed of taking her future daughter to ballet classes. One day, she took me to a ballet studio near our house, and I immediately got hooked just dancing in a leotard that we borrowed on the spot [laughs]. I was the kind of kid that would try to imitate the moves of someone practicing flamenco at the park, so I’m sure I just generally liked to dance. When I was around six or seven, I saw a performance by the Matsuyama Ballet (*1) at the Fujisawa Civic Hall, which was located one station away from my family’s home. Yoko Morishita (*2), the prima ballerina, performed all the acts from Coppélia and Giselle. I was particularly mesmerized by Giselle, and this was the first moment when I felt a strong desire to become a professional ballet dancer.

From then on, you transferred to the Tachibana Ballet School, where Asami Maki (*4), the general director of Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo (*3), served as principal, and enrolled in the A.M. Students program, which only accepts the best dancers pursuing a professional career. You were under the direct tutelage of Maki in this class—how would you describe her as a teacher?

She was a very strict person, even with kids, but what I remember more is how kind she was, how she gave me a lot of room to grow. I have nothing but gratitude for the audacity to entrust me at the age of 14 with the role of Cupid in her company’s rendition of Don Quixote—looking back even today, she made an extremely adventurous decision. Since I tend to get nervous on stage, I delivered my performance by doing everything I could to reach a point where I would feel satisfied no matter the outcome. This became a really foundational experience for me.

You joined Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo in 1993, and in 1997 you became a contractual dancer at the then-newly opened New National Theater, Tokyo. What kind of conversation did you have with Maki?

She was the one who encouraged me to try out, saying that not only was it a fortuitous opportunity to join a new national theater, but also that I was the perfect age to audition. She was already involved in the theater’s ballet and dance division at the time, and was appointed as the upcoming artistic director. In the end Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo sent me, Mizuka Ueno (*5), Naoya Kojima (*6), and Masanobu Negishi (*7) to audition, telling us that we could always come back if it felt too tough or wasn’t the right fit. That’s how I ended up auditioning for and signing my contract with the New National Theater, Tokyo.

For the New National Theater, Tokyo’s inaugural performance of The Sleeping Beauty, you were one of the people who performed the lead role of Princess Aurora on a rotating basis with other outstanding members.

Hiroshi Shimada (*8), the first artistic director of the ballet and dance division, adopted Russian ballet as the basis for the new theater, so our rendition of The Sleeping Beauty as well as our subsequent performances of The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Giselle were all Mariinsky Ballet (*9) versions. As a result, we had Diana Vishneva (*10) star as a guest performer from Mariinsky Ballet for the role of Princess Aurora, while Yoko Morishita, Miyako Yoshida (*11), and I also took turns as the Japanese performers, each of us representing ballet from a different generational and career perspective. Miyako, who was in the UK at the time, wasn’t able to arrive in Japan until right before her performance, but Yoko showed up to the rehearsal space a few times with her partner Tetsutaro Shimizu, video camera in hand.
 
When a guest performer stars in the lead role, they usually dance parts like the pas de deux based on their own style and technique, so it can be hard to maintain a balance with the other performers and may seem a bit incongruous. However, Yoko wanted to avoid this, and expressed a desire to arrange their dancing so that it worked in relation to the dancing of the New National Theater, Tokyo company members. They decided to incorporate moves from the Mariinsky version at times, while mainly drawing from their usual choreography. The Mariinsky instructors also welcomed this approach, often calling out to “Yoko-san” with the Japanese honorific and asking her to discuss the choreography with them. Their attitude left an impression on me. On the day of the performance, I remember simply feeling so happy to be able to dance at this beautiful, new theater.
 
But the most gratifying experience was to receive the intense mentorship of the Mariinsky instructors. Leading up to our rehearsals for The Sleeping Beauty, we first took lessons for four months that solely focused on learning the Vaganova method (*12). Since we couldn’t use the New National Theater, Tokyo yet, we borrowed a rehearsal room at the neighboring Tokyo Opera City.

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  The National Ballet of Japan, The Sleeping Beauty, Opening Commemorative Performance (1997) © Hidemi Seto

What was it like to intensively train in the Vaganova method?

It was a very academic approach. Whether it’s the angle of the upper body, the neckline, the port de bra, the fingertips—everything is based on a meticulously calculated sense of beauty, so it’s possible to accurately unify all the formations between people who have trained under that system. However, this is ultimately only possible if you’ve thoroughly mastered the ballet positions and poses. For example, turning your leg outward from the hip in en dehors is a fundamental ballet technique, but even Japanese dancers who consider themselves properly trained in this movement are still seen as needing more training from a Russian person’s perspective. I was around 22 to 23 years-old at the time, and they kept telling me to change what I was doing, or to push it even further. In my case, I don’t have an ideal ballet body, but because I have a more muscular build and my joints aren’t too internally rotated, I was able to make up for it by working hard every day. The rehearsals were tough but also a very memorable experience.

I’ve heard that you’re able to attain a more compelling en dehors when you really have to work towards it rather than if your body easily adapts to the position.

Apparently ballet gets boring for people who can easily do en dehors turns. Since it’s a challenge for me, I had to put myself through a lot of training to learn, and it was really satisfying when I finally figured it out. I’ve never once felt bored. A person’s physical abilities are important, of course, but the way that person dances is also crucial. I’ve been studying my body every day, trying to experiment and figure out how to create specific movements, and it’s something I’ll continue to do going forward.

After this experience, the repertoire of the National Ballet of Japan (*13) expanded to include British ballet during Maki’s term as the artistic director. You first performed in Cinderella, choreographed by Frederick Ashton (*14), and Romeo and Juliet and Manon, choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan (*15), which garnered a lot of attention.

In the 2001 premiere of Romeo and Juliet, I performed Juliet twice. It felt like a dream to be able to star in a work choreographed by MacMillan. When Naoya Kojima, who was set to perform Mercutio, got injured and had to step down right before the performance, we were all really surprised to see Tetsuya Kumakawa (*16) quickly step in to fill the role. Since Kumakawa was an expert in performing Mercutio as a principal dancer of the Royal Ballet in the UK, he was able to perform right away. He was so captivating and helped boost our morale even more.
 
Another memorable experience was the 2003 premiere of Manon. Alessandra Ferri (*17), a former principal dancer of the Royal Ballet, and Clairemarie Osta (*18), a former étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet, were the guest performers to star as Manon, so I felt a lot of pressure as the only Japanese dancer cast in the role.

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  The National Ballet of Japan, Manon (2003). Left: Dominic Walsh as Des Grieux © Hidemi Seto

Manon was considered a challenging piece due to the difficult dances that included complex, acrobatic lifts, and the story of a heroine who falls from grace to become a high-class prostitute. In that sense, the fact that a Japanese company was staging this work with a Japanese dancer as Manon sent shockwaves through the country’s ballet world.

I heard that Kenneth’s wife, Deborah MacMillan, and their daughter, who are the custodians of his work, saw my performance of Juliet and gave permission for me to star in the role. Even so, this was an extremely taxing and challenging experience. I was failing miserably and getting scolded by the instructor from France, and I lost a lot of weight. I was wearing my pointe shoes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. without any breaks, which made my pinky toe hurt, to the point that it ended up getting swollen and infected. I was quite the pitiful sight [laughs wryly]. All of us cast as high-class prostitutes had a hard time preparing for the role as well. Japanese dancers have a tendency to come off as more adolescently feminine rather than mature, so I tried to study through books and films, but it was quite difficult to capture the role.

Despite being a national institution, the National Ballet of Japan has been criticized for not having a salary system or training school, and has experienced many complications to this day, such as initially referring to itself as the “New National Theater Ballet” rather than as a ballet company. As someone who has witnessed its transformation from the very beginning, how do you see its current state as a ballet company?

I think the company is taking another big step forward with Miyako Yoshida as its artistic director. I do think they have continued to work toward implementing a better system and improving the dancers’ work conditions, and they have been dedicated to advancing the dancers’ skills by staging more performances than in my time. After all, there’s nothing like the experience of performing on stage. Today’s dancers are taller, have longer legs, and are more well-proportioned, so I think things will get even more interesting as they gain more expressiveness and a sense of individuality.

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  Photo: Kikuko Usuyama

In 2004, you switched from working as a contracted dancer to an Honorable Dancer at the New National Theater, Tokyo, and made a guest appearance in Shiki Theatre Company’s Contact (2007) and Andersen (2009). Your performance of the woman in the yellow dress in Contact was amazing, radiating with a presence perfect for the role.

I’m so honored to hear that. I was told that the role would suit me and was encouraged to apply, When I went to audition for the role, Keita Asari (*19) greeted me with a smile, saying, “What’s the prima ballerina of NNTT doing here?” [laughs]. He asked me if I wanted to play the role, and I said, “Yes!” which is how I got casted. Because the role also included dialogue, I followed a method that Asari designed to properly learn how to enunciate. Ballet dancers usually don’t talk on stage, and it’s hard to project our voices because our bodies are tensed up, but when I tried using my voice, I felt really energized. Maybe it activated something inside my body—it was a really refreshing experience, like I could open my eyes really widely. The throat is also part of the body, so I imagine there are dance-related benefits to stimulating it, too. Ever since then, I started to think about how it would be great if I could dance as if I were reciting lines. Even if I’m not actually speaking, I could approach the idea of entering the stage as if I’m saying hello. I feel that these performances have given me an invaluable artistic gift.

You also sometimes use your voice in Altneu, your dance unit with Yasutake Shimaji (*20). I feel like the relationship between you two as partners, both professionally and personally, comes across nicely in your Altneu performances.

I think so, too. In the beginning, it was really hard. My ballet instincts would leave me waiting to respond to the choreography, but Shimaji would tell me to take more initiative. Sometimes I would just splay myself on the floor like a whiny child and say, “I just don’t get it!” [laughs]. But I have a basis in classical dance, and Shimaji has the skills that he’s cultivated through his years with the Forsyth Company, so we’re able to learn from each other. For example, as a way to come up with a system for improvisation within the creation process, Forsyth gave him an eye mask and told him to use it in his house for a week and come up with choreography based on a bodily sense of where different objects were located. Hearing these kinds of anecdotes and actually getting to see the company’s creation process deeply inspired me.

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  Altneu, Autrement dit (2024). Left: Yasutake Shimaji © Pierre

What a great idea. Each person’s house has a different layout, but there must be certain things in common.

Improvisation within dance can seem like the dancers are just moving around a lot, but I find it fascinating that there are certain motives and precise imagery behind the moves. I often experience it as a kind of culture shock. On the other hand, Shimaji would say that he doesn’t understand what it’s like to dance on balance, since they would often intentionally dance off balance (*21) at the Forsyth Company. When one of us shifts our weight to the point that the supporting dancer can properly feel the pressure, we know things are off balance. So I would suggest that the point where you don’t need to exert force could be understood as on balance. Then I would stand on my pointe shoes, and we would dance together while putting our weight on each other. 

This approach became really useful not just in contemporary dance, but in classical as well. This is because sometimes you can achieve more stability if you put your weight onto the other person, as opposed to never doing so. I feel that these experiences allow me to further refine classical techniques, which often feel like threading a needle in the sense of expressing your individuality within an established form. I also would recommend other ballet dancers try more unorthodox moves. Altneu is a project I want to pursue even when we’re old and gray.

One of your recent endeavors includes collaborating with Toshiki Okada (*22). The first piece, The Dying Swan and Its Cause of Death, premiered at the Aichi Prefectural Art Theater in 2021. It was part of a project called “Genealogy of Dance,” which focused on passing down and reconstructing dance in today’s context. In this piece, you performed the work in a classical way, and then explored the swan’s cause of death from a contemporary perspective. Your second work together, Giselle: A Summary, premiered at Aichi Prefectural Art Theater x Dance Base Yokohama’s Performing Arts Selection 2024. In it, you introduce the piece as you interweave your own experiences through Hana’s Channel, your ballet YouTuber channel. Both works are unique and vulnerable, drawing out more compelling qualities of your practice.

I first explained my understanding of ballet to Okada and shared a lot of my failures with him. Then he created a text, which included a ridiculous amount of dialogue—for example, Giselle: A Summary is 13-pages long. He told me that it was based on what I had told him, though [laughs]. If I were an actor, I’m sure that I’d be able to quickly memorize it, just as we do with choreography. But since I’m not, I felt like my brain was going to short-circuit as I was going over the lines again and again in an attempt to memorize them.
 
I feel that my stage presence in this performance is quite elusive, as if I am myself and not at the same time. When I talk about all of the acts in Giselle, I become each character—sometimes I’m Giselle, and other times I’m Hilarion or Myrtha. But I learned that I get a bit mechanical when I’m too focused on accurately delivering each word in the dialogue, so Okada would tell me, “Even if you forget the lines, you’ll be okay as long as you can picture the imagery.” So for the opening show, Okada himself joined me on stage as the prompter, reassuring me that it was okay to make any mistakes.

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  Giselle: A Summary (2024). Left: Toshiki Okada © Naoshi Hatori

Okada is fascinated by things that may seem normal to ballet dancers or its usual audience, and it’s this viewpoint that forms the core of these works. I wonder if the process of working together also provided you an opportunity to see ballet from a different perspective compared to your usual work?

Absolutely. Whether it was The Dying Swan or Giselle, I performed them without questioning things until I started working with Okada. Especially with Giselle, we can see how the work holds a kind of male gaze by depicting a woman who devotes herself to love. Ballet is a classical art form with fairy tales that often depict a dream-like world, but the people performing it are real humans living in today’s era. Working with Okada, whose perspective is rooted in contemporary society, provided me an opportunity to reflect on these things. We performed The Dying Swan and Its Cause of Death in the US, and the audience members were laughing and applauding throughout. People were asking me things like, “Where did you learn to do comedy?” [laughs].
 
There’s a scene where we connect the death of the swan to plastic trash and declare that plastic does not return to the earth. In San Francisco, where many people are very environmentally conscious, we received comments supporting this message and were told we should perform in elementary schools; the audience also asked many questions related to environmental issues in the post-performance talk.

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  The Dying Swan and Its Cause of Death (2021). Left: cellist Udai Shika © Naoshi Hatori

In Giselle: A Summary, there’s a line that goes something like, “Choreographers are narrow-minded in their understanding of Giselle, and I’m often shut down when I want to try new things. But when I ask them what makes Giselle unique, they just give me a vague answer.” Even within classical forms of art that contain many established rules, the dancers have certain desires, so obviously there are times when those things aren’t compatible with the instructor’s vision.

We see this not just in classical art forms, but across the board. Our job is to embody the thing that the artist or choreographer wants to express, so you have to strike a balance with what you personally want to express. In my case, though, I do strive to be a person who can suggest my own ideas. Ideally, we could avoid remaining passive with the choreography and still be able to create something together. Since you’re using your own body, creating a space where you can be clear about what you can and can’t do, a space where you’re able to offer alternate ideas, will lead to better artistic creations.

For your third collaboration with Okada, you will be starring in the premiere of Dance Jurors’ Dance in September 2025. While you delivered solo performances in the past two works, this one features an ensemble cast with people who have participated in Okada’s workshops: Megumi Nakamura, Yasutake Shimaji, Anna Irite, and actor Makoto Yazawa, as well as musician Utena Kobayashi. I heard that the theme stemmed from a random conversation that really took off about being jurors for competitions.

That’s right. All of us will perform the role of jurors for a dance competition. Okada became interested in former dancers as jurors because of their way of viewing bodies, and he also recently wrote a review of Kiyokazu Washida’s book, Shoyuron [A theory of property], so I think the work will be exploring the concept of the body and “property.” What’s exciting for me this time is that there are multiple people with different backgrounds. I have no idea what the work will be like, but I’m really looking forward to it. In our previous two works, Okada focused on ballet, but given that this work is a dance performance and theater performance, I feel like it’s going to be a fascinating and unprecedented piece, presenting a relationship between words and movement that sets itself apart.

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  © Yusei Fukuyama
  Dance Jurors’ Dance Written and directed by Toshiki Okada
  Featuring Megumi Nakamura, Hana Sakai, Yasutake Shimaji, Anna Irite, Makoto Yazawa, Utena Kobayashi
  Aichi: Sept. 19–21, 2025　Aichi Arts Center Small Hall　
  Tokyo: Oct. 1–5, 2025　Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Theatre East
  Kochi: Dec. 13–14, 2025　The Museum of Art, Kochi Hall　
  Nagano: Jan. 12, 2026　Santomyuze (Ueda Arts Center) Small Hall
  Fukuoka: Jan. 25, 2026　J:COM Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center, Medium Hall

In Giselle: A Summary, the constant repetition of the phrase “But whatever” between other lines of dialogue, together with your unique intonation, created an interesting effect. Your artistic expression seems to flourish the more you collaborate with Okada, so I can’t help but feel excited to see what kind of new ground you’ll break in this upcoming work. I’m sure that Okada asks you to try many things, but do you have any kind of red line, something you wouldn’t be able to do?

I was trying to mimic the Kansai dialect with that phrase, but my rather strange intonation ended up working better [laughs]. Shimaji is also part of this performance, and everyone has been complimenting his voice, so I hope he gets to speak a lot. Of course, we’re also supposed to do some dancing, too. I guess the thing that I can’t or don’t want to do would just be something like performing in nude, not that there’s any demand for that [laughs].

Rather than quitting dance as a top performer, I feel that your stance of actively building your career, whether it’s through collaborations with a theater pioneer like Okada or something else, encourages a lot of younger dancers to explore the possibilities in their own careers.

I’m grateful to be seen in that way. Of course, raising a leg, jumping, these are amazing techniques that are possible thanks to one’s youth, but the ability to express something invisible and different from that only becomes richer with age. Of course it’s sad to not be able to do the technical things like before, but my current self is the best there is today, so I want to stay positive and prioritize what I can do to continue embarking on new challenges.

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  Special Thanks to Dance Base Yokohama, the New National Theatre, Tokyo　Photo: Kikuko Usuyama