Hana Sakai x Toshiki Okada
Hana Sakai
Born in Seattle, U.S.A., and raised in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, Hana Sakai began studying ballet in 1979 under Toshiaki Hatasa. She joined the Tachibana Ballet School and the Maki Asami Ballet, where she was selected for the role of Cupid at age 14 and made her debut in a leading role at 18.
In 1997, with the opening of the New National Theatre, Tokyo, she joined The National Ballet of Japan. In 2003, she became the first Japanese dancer to perform the title role in The National Ballet of Japan’s premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon.
In 2013, she began her artistic collaboration with Yasutake Shimaji as the unit Altneu. She has received numerous honours, including the Award from the Ministry of Education in the Art Encouragement Prize (2009), the Nimura Dance Prize (2015), the Medal with Purple Ribbon (2017), the 39th Akiko Tachibana Foundation Special Award (2018), and the 69th Tokyo Newspaper Dance Art Award (2021), among others.
She performed in The Dying Swan and Its Cause of Death (2021), co-produced with Dance Base Yokohama (directed by Toshiki Okada), which toured widely in Japan and abroad. In November and December 2024, she performed in Giselle: A Summary in Aichi and Kanagawa. She is a DaBY Guest Artist and an Aichi Prefectural Art Theater Dance Artist.
Toshiki Okada
Playwright, director, and novelist. He founded the theatre company chelfitsch in 1997 and is known for the distinctive relationship between language and the body in his work.
Since his international debut in 2007 with Five Days in March at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, he has presented his works in over 90 cities across Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
He has produced commissioned works including Grand and Floor (2013, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Belgium), Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich (2014, Theater der Welt, Germany), NEW ILLUSION (2022, Ob/Scene Festival, South Korea), and Metamorphosis of a Living Room (2023, Wiener Festwochen, Austria), and has co-produced works with theaters and festivals. He also presented God Bless Baseball (2015, Asian Arts Theatre) with a Japanese and Korean cast, and Pratthana – A Portrait of Possession (2018), based on a novel by Thai author Uthis Haemamool, with a Thai cast.
Since 2016, he has directed works in a repertory program at Münchner Kammerspiele for four consecutive seasons, including The Vacuum Cleaner (2019), invited to the 2020 Theatertreffen in Berlin. In 2022, his play Doughnuts, created for Thalia Theater in Hamburg, was also invited to Theatertreffen. In 2024, he premiered Homeoffice at Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, and in May 2025, he will premiere Wasting Away at Schauspiel Hannover.
As a novelist, he published The End of the Moment We Had (Shinchōsha, 2007), which won the 2nd Kenzaburō Ōe Prize. In 2022, he received the 35th Mishima Yukio Prize and the 64th Kumanichi Literary Award for his novel Broccoli Revolution (Shinchōsha).
He has been appointed Artistic Director of The Performing Arts Festival: Autumn Meteorite Tokyo starting in 2025, and Artistic Director (Performing Arts) at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater starting in 2026.