Performer Yusuke Onuki Reflecting on Dorian Gray, Dancing, Singing and Acting

Photo courtesy of HoriPro

Interview by Miyuki Kawai

TJ: How did you first get into dancing? What styles of dance have you trained to do?
ONUKI: My mother is a dancer and runs a dance studio, so I naturally started to learn dancing. I started with jazz and modern dance. But when I was a primary school student, I saw “Rave2001,” a TV dance program, and got interested in street dancing. I began taking dance lessons and was into street dancing in junior high and high school. And gradually I started to be interested in contemporary dance and ballet.

JAPANESE rock rebel Diamond Yukai, who was born Yutaka Tadokoro in 1962, continues to reinvent himself in a music, film, television and writing career that has spanned nearly three decades.

As a teen, his parents, who were civil servants in Saitama, wanted him to conform to the system. They told him he would never succeed as a rock and roller. Diamond Yukai proved them wrong in the mid-eighties by forming Red Warriors, a band that went on to fill stadiums throughout Japan including the legendary Budokan and Seibu, the latter of which seats close to 40,000.

During this time, Diamond Yukai branched into the movie industry, beginning with a starring role in the 1988 movie “Tokyo Pop” directed by Fran Kuzui, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and Fox TV’s hit series “Angel.” He co-starred in “Tokyo Pop” with actress Carrie Hamilton, daugh- ter of the legendary comedienne Carol Burnett. He went on to appear in Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” in 2004 and numerous Japanese films and television dramas.