Gets Real: Bellevue-born dancer now a soloist with Pacific Northwest Ballet

SEATTLE — A rising star at the Pacific Northwest Ballet grew up just across Lake Washington in Bellevue, not knowing anything about the ballet.

That inauspicious beginning has led to a full-time career in dance.

In the 1990s, the PNB, as it is affectionately known, began seeking out public school students from underserved communities.

Now one of those students has become the first “Dance Chance” dancer ever promoted to a PNB soloist. And he is a dancer who is already making a mark in the ballet world.

In a sense, the life story of Kuu Sakuragi begins with his name. “Sakuragi,” meaning cherry blossom tree in Japanese. And Kuu --

“It’s kanji,” he said. “So, when I was a kid, I asked my dad what did it mean? And he said he got that name from a Buddhist monk named Kukai. And ‘Kukai’ means ‘empty ocean.’”

Is “Kuu” the empty part or the ocean part?

“Empty part,” he said. “Sad, but also like inspiring.”

An emptiness, he says, he gets to fill. “Yeah, with anything I want.”

And fill it, he has, with dance.

The first time Kuu danced was as part of the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “Dance Chance” program, created in 1994 to expand access to the 15th-century art form that began in Italy. He was just 8 years old. He got a letter offering him a scholarship.

“And I gave it to my Mom,” he said. “And she loves the arts. She’s a very artsy person. So, she was like, ‘All right, you’re doing it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, okay, fine.’”

But within a year, he was the only boy left in his class. And other sports beckoned.

“I was one of those boys that wanted to do soccer ‘cause all of my friends were doing it,” he said. “I got in. And I told my mother, ‘I got in. Can I like please do this and ballet?’ And my mom’s, ‘No, we can’t put that on the schedule.’”

Forced to stick it out, he caught the ballet bug, for good.

“I was a kid by myself a lot, with my imagination,” Sakuragi said. “I would run around, this kid with a stick playing by themselves, pretending I’m a superhero. Nowadays, like, I still do the same thing especially for like, the Nutcracker. I get to pretend I’m a cricket. I get to pretend I’m a soldier doll and try to convince kids like, I am this. And like watch me, be it.”

In early November, having convinced some adults, too, he was promoted to soloist.

“What isn’t special about Kuu? asked Peter Boal, PNB’s longtime artistic director. “He’s the quietest, most humble, most encouraging person in the room. He’s always looking out for his peers. Aside from that, he can outjump anyone in the company. There are maybe two that can give him a run for his money. But those three are like crazy jumpers.”

Kuu was asked if he has any role models for wanting to be in the ballet?

“James Moore, James Yoichi Moore,” he said. “He’s principal dancer here. He’s half-Japanese. And we’d go and my mom is like, ‘Who is that?’ We’d watch Romeo and Juliette. And there’s James Moore dancing.”

Kuu Sakuragi may be living proof that one need not be born to dance. But that in finding dance, one’s life can be forever changed.

And in his case, the lion’s share of the credit for that belongs to his mom!

“My mom didn’t really give me a choice,” he said. “But I’m glad she didn’t because I’m here now.”

More proof perhaps, that mother knows best!

If you’d like to see some of Kuu’s spectacular jumps, he’s appearing in PNB’s Nutcracker -- on stage now through December 27!

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