Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.
—Martha Graham
“The more I move,” says Japan’s “dancing salaryman”, Toru Utsumi, “the more my spirit rises, and I start feeling good.” Utsumi was featured in a NYT article(Oct.17, 2026), about his dance performances, that revealed he’s amassed over a million followers on TikTok and Instagram “with short, fancy-free videos that poke fun at the country’s buttoned-down corporate culture.” One fan says of Utsumi, “He’s like a joy machine.”
Utsumi was a dance fan from kindergarten, when he’d imitate ballet dancers he’d seen, and it was around high school age that he began admiring Mick Jagger’s hip movements. A lifetime corporate worker (and later consultant), Utsumi labored into his fifties before signing up for dance classes in an attempt to reengage his former interest. His teacher, Sachiko Nagatomo, said Utsumi had “a free-flowing, highly improvised style, and that he struggled to stick to the choreography”. Instead of that being a negative, however, she thought his success was due to Utsumi being “completely funky and free.”
Utsumi started posting near-daily dance videos in 2023, when he was 57, declaring his intentions in order to hold himself accountable and avoid “slacking off”. What I love about this story is how much courage it takes for Utsumi to dance so freely, even with the disapproval some display when they see him dancing in public. Individual commitment and perseverance can often turn what others might initially find ridiculous or embarrassing into an inspiring trend. Beautifully, Utsumi is not in it to change the world, he says, “But if people see me having fun and decide to try something themselves, that’s enough.”
Inspire others to dance this week by daring to be yourself and dance wherever and whenever the mood strikes! You’ll find ample opportunities to take classes, one-off workshops (and even a bootcamp) and to just flat out dance, listed online at the Dance Calendar.
See you on the dance floor —Sean Donovan