a dance, music, multimedia and publishing project inspired by the life and legacy of Ryuichi Sakamoto
by Michael Sakamoto and Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Fusing butoh dance theater, hip-hop mixology, new music and multimedia, time/life/beauty is inspired by the music, interdisciplinary collaborations and environmental and anti-war commitments of famed composer-musician and activist Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023). Choreographer-writer- performer Michael Sakamoto, composer-musician Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, in collaboration with dancer Mohammed Smahneh aka Barges. introduce three works: Gods and Monsters, a music/dance/multimedia suite; asymm, an intimate performance solo by Sakamoto; and Beautiful Blue Sky, a dance duet with Sakamoto and Barges, featuring additional music by singer-songwriter H.Sinno.
The project can tour as an evening-length program, as individual works, or in lecture-demonstration format for a variety of venues and budgets.
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Recent and upcoming engagements
January 2024 Winter Jazz Fest, New York (guest performances)
July 2024 Japan Fest, Levitt Pavilion Denver (community concert)
January 2025 Live Artery/New York Live Arts (APAP showcase)
Sept 2025 Development residency & showing,Texas Performing Arts, UT Austin
November 2025 Ars Nova Workshop, Philadelphia, PA (work-in-progress)
January 2025 Production residency,Thalian Hall,Wilmington, NC
January 30, 2026 Duke Arts, Duke University, Durham, NC (world premiere)
March 6-7, 2026 Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
April 16, 2026 Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA (asymm evening-length work-in-progress showing)
March 6, 2027 Lafayette College, Easton, PA
2026 onward Available for touring
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Additional activities
Artist talks, master classes, panel discussions and other activities available. Student or community performers may be engaged under some circumstances.
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Collaborators
“An unforgettable performance…full of fire and comic detail… performed with style and panache.” – New York Times “Oozing across boundaries with all the deliberate conviction of the collective unconscious.” – Newsday
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky is currently Artist in Residence at Yale University Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (2023-2024, extended). He is a composer, multimedia artist, and writer whose work engages audiences in a blend of genres, global culture, and environmental and social issues. Miller has collaborated with an array of recording artists, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Metallica, Chuck D from Public Enemy, Steve Reich, and Yoko Ono amongst many others. His 2018 album, DJ Spooky Presents: Phantom Dancehall, debuted at #3 on Billboard Reggae.
Miller is known for his international environmentalism efforts, including: an artist residency program on Vanuatu in the South Pacific, one of the nations most impacted by global warming’s rising seas; Antarctica research and resulting Ice Symphony and tour; and participation in the annual Hiroshima Peace Boat project, and his resulting Peace Symphony and tour.
Miller’s large-scale, multimedia performance pieces include Rebirth of a Nation, Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica, commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Seoul Counterpoint, written during his 2014 residency at Seoul Institute of the Arts. His multimedia project, Sonic Web, premiered at San Francisco’s Internet Archive in 2019. He was the inaugural artist-in- residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s The Met Reframed, 2012-2013. In 2014, Miller was named National Geographic Emerging Explorer. He produced Pioneers of African American Cinema, a collection of the earliest films made by African American directors, released in 2015. Miller’s artwork has appeared in the Whitney Biennial,Venice Biennial for Architecture, Miami/ Art Basel fair, and many other museums and galleries.
Miller’s books include the award-winning Rhythm Science, published by MIT Press; Sound Unbound, an anthology about digital music and media; The Book of Ice, a visual and acoustic portrait of the Antarctic; and The Imaginary App, on how apps changed the world. His writing has been published by The Village Voice,The Source, and Artforum, and he was the first founding Executive Editor of Origin Magazine.
“The dynamic Mohammed Smahneh…moves fluidly between styles, his dancing a through line that links dabke, a traditional Palestinian folk dance, and breaking.” – New York Times
Mohammed Smahneh aka Barges is an internationally-active contemporary, hip-hop, and folk dancer based in Palestine and New York City. He is a member of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre, with whom he has performed numerous projects since 2011, including: Gathering: New York City, Last Ward, 3×13, Against a Hard Surface, Noah, bound, and The Playground.
Smahneh was one of the first b-boy dancers in Palestine Askar refugee camp and the region. Together with a group of young b-boy dancers, he works on developing and teaching breaking in Palestine, where they organize battle competitions and workshops. He has won various break-dance battles in Palestine and been involved in many international and local projects, including: Badke, a co-production between KVS, le ballets C de la B & A.M. Qattan Foundation and directed by Koen Augustijnen, Rosalba Torres and Hildegard De Vuyest (2013-2016 Brussels, Blegium and international tours); B by Koen Augustijnen and Rosalba Torres Guerrero (2016-2018 South Africa, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and France); Nomads Dance Camp directed by Dina Abu Hamdan with choreographers Jorge Crecis,Taoufiq Izediou, and Samara Haddad King (2014, Jordan); Nji alli with Botega Dance Company directed by Enzo Celli (2009, Italy); Floor Wars Battle Champion (2012, Copenhagen, Denmark); and festivals in Spain and Greece touring Palestinian traditional dance (2004-2005). Smahneh is also a puppeteer for acclaimed international public performance project, The Walk with Little Amal, by Handspring Puppet Company.
H.Sinno is a composer-performer,writer,and designer,and from 2008 was lyricist and front- person for the band, Mashrou’ Leila, engaging representation, free speech, gender justice, and sexual freedoms in the Middle East. Their opera, Westerly Breath, a semi-autobiographical portrait of queer trauma, leveraging myth, monument, and memoir, opened at the New York Met Museum in 2024.Their solo debut, Poems of Consumption, a song cycle covering themes of ennui, surveillance capitalism, heartbreak, boycotts, and orientalism, opened at London’s Barbican Centre in 2023, and is currently touring the US.