California DanceMaker Grants

2001 Grantee Profile: Michael Sakamoto
Doctor Chi!

The dance-theater project Doctor Chi! provided an entertaining, subversive and ultimately dark and moving journey through the fictional history of the Doctor Chi series, eight films made in Germany, France and the U.S. between 1923 and 1967. The title character is an absurdist version of numerous legendary horror and suspense villains and anti-heroes, such as Doctor Mabuse, Fu Manchu, Doctor Orloc, Dracula and even Doctor Frank N. Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The project paid an historically-accurate homage to socio-cultural settings from Weimar Germany to Nouvelle Vague France to late 1960's counterculture while simultaneously providing a kitsch parody of those periods.

From original concept to final staging, the project took 15 months to create. It was choreographed, written, directed by Michael Sakamoto and co-performed by Sakamoto and a cast of five dancer-performers.

The show received a great deal of publicity, much of it doubtless due to the Irvine Foundation–Dance/USA's association with the project, which created a "legitimizing" factor in the public eye. It received a "Best Bet" and review in the Los Angeles Times; a "Performance Pick of the Week" in the LA Weekly; a capsule review on KCRW; a pick of the week in the Phoenix New Times, and even a visual art recommendation in the LA Weekly (for the art installation version of the Doctor Chi history.) All public and marketing materials included specific mention of support from the grant program.

Michael Sakamoto's Remarks

"This was my first experience with creating a full-length show for an ensemble cast. While the logistics themselves were daunting enough, the financial aspect of such an undertaking was even more intimidating. The California DanceMaker Grant funds enabled me to create in an atmosphere free of much of the practical anxiety that faces most emerging choreographers and directors — namely, how to hold an ensemble together with very little if any financial compensation to the participants ....

"... This grant program, and others like it, are invaluable tools for emerging artists whose career trajectories and artistic potential often need additional support to realize their goals in a professional, productive, and complete manner.... By supporting the performing arts in a proactive, benevolent way, [the Irvine Foundation and Dance/USA] indirectly promote more benevolent artistic work that may reach and inspire countless future audiences in California, throughout the United States and the world."