Michael Sakamoto, performing arts curator and director of the Asian and Asian American Arts and Culture Program for the Fine Arts Center has been awarded a $15,000 fellowship in choreography from the Mass Cultural Council.
“I’m honored and grateful for this Mass Cultural Council fellowship in recognition of my interdisciplinary artistry and long career. This state has many great creators, and I don’t take it or granted that this award also represents support for my commitment to issues of diversity and social justice for multiple racial, gender, socioeconomic communities,” Sakamoto says. “As a choreographer who also works in theatre, photography, media, education, cultural scholarship, and, of course, curating, my mission is always to foster greater dialogue and transformation.”
Sakamoto, an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, curator and educator active in dance, theatre, photography and media art, is one of 21 recipients of MCC's Fiscal Year 2022 Artist Fellowship awards.
He says the funds from the award will go towards new projects dedicated to accomplishing these goals, from working with UMass dance, engineering and gender researchers looking at safety and justice for BIPOC and femme/non-binary in cycling and media imagery in western Massachusetts, to creating new modes of expression for Asian American artists in classical dance and music, to raising the profile of butoh dance in America through his dance scholarship and writing.
Sakamot’s creative works have been presented in 15 countries throughout Asia, Europe and North America. Recent internationally touring works include the intercultural dance theater trio, “Soil” (National Dance Project grantee), the hip-hop/butoh duet, Flash,” with Rennie Harris, and the intermedia performance solo, “blind spot.” His essays and articles have been published in over a dozen journals and anthologies by major academic publishers. His new book, “An Empty Room: Imagining Butoh and the Social Body in Crisis,” the first scholarly analysis of butoh by an established touring artist will be released by Wesleyan University Press on April 5.
Current projects include: “Garden of the Wilis,” a performance project unpacking gender and racial dynamics in butoh, ballet, and classical music with George de la Peña and Hyeyung Yoon (planned premiere 2023); “Ourt Utopia,” a social practice and intermedia performance and installation work with dance, software, engineering and gender/race studies researchers at UMass Amherst based on cycling and photography as cultural vernaculars; and “Yakei,” a new collection of photo and literary criticism essays.