Step into the world of ballet beyond the spotlight with our exclusive feature! Each edition offers a glimpse into the off-stage lives of your favorite dancers, showcasing their unique hobbies and passions. Discover the surprising and delightful activities that make these artists’ lives as captivating as their performances.
KUU SAKURAGI
Pacific Northwest Ballet
Soloist
@kuutheman
Essential item in your dance bag?
Massage ball, KIND bar, protein drink, and THERABAND.
Movie you can re-watch till the end of time?
Interstellar.
Dancer who’s inspired you?
James Yoichi Moore, Jonathan Porretta, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Julio Bocca, Carla Körbes, Leta Biasucci.
Song/artist/playlist you’ve been playing on repeat?
Chance the Rapper, Mac Miller, Clairo, The Smiths, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and Radiohead. I would put more but I would take up too much space.
Least favorite dance step?
I can’t seem to think of one.
How do you like to spend your time outside of dance?
Playing video games, hanging with friends, cooking and eating yummy food.
Best place to hang out in your company’s home city?
Ballard has some really cool spots for food and small stores to check out. I appreciate Streamline after a work week and also Queen Anne Beerhall.
Dream role?
Albrecht in Giselle.
Go-to coffee shop order?
Cappuccino, latte, or jasmine tea.
Essential post-show ritual?
I usually try to take a nap if I have a double show day or have a hard role to perform to help visualize myself in the performance.
ABOUT KUU
Kuu Sakuragi (he/him) is from Bellevue, Washington. He studied on scholarship at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, where he began as a DanceChance student at the Francia Russell Center. He attended summer courses at Houston Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, San Francisco Ballet, the School of American Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. He was a recipient of the Flemming Halby Exchange with the Royal Danish Ballet School. In 2017, Sakuragi joined Alberta Ballet as an apprentice and was promoted to company dancer in 2018. He joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2020, and was promoted to soloist in 2023.
At Alberta Ballet, Sakuragi performed leading roles in Christopher Anderson’s Cinderella, Jean Grand-Maître’s Joni Mitchell’s The Fiddle and The Drum, Helen Pickett’s Petal, Edmund Stripe’s The Nutcracker, and Wen Wei Wang’s Futureland.
Featured Image: Kuu Sakuragi in Marco Goecke’s Mopey. Photo © Angela Sterling.
Image 1: Kuu Sakuragi with Lucien Postlewaite in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette. Photo © Angela Sterling.
