Appointed at the exceptionally young age of 25 as the producer of Mynavi DANCEALIVE, one of Japan’s largest dance battle events, dancer TATSUKI is now entering his third year in the role. Since discovering dance at the age of five while waiting during swimming school lessons, he quickly rose to prominence as a member of Beat Soldier during his childhood years. Today, he continues to perform at the forefront as an active dancer while simultaneously working behind the scenes as an event producer, constantly challenging boundaries between the mainstream and underground dance worlds.

In this interview, we spoke with TATSUKI — a multi-faceted figure who personally embodies this hybrid style of activity as an active dancer — about his flexibility in moving between backstage production and center stage performance, the ongoing reforms he is leading within Mynavi DANCEALIVE, and the reasons behind pursuing such a wide range of work. We asked him about the future he envisions as one of the key figures shaping the next generation of the dance scene.

An Encounter at Age Five and a Childhood Guided by Chance

➖ First of all, could you tell us about your dance background?

I’m from Saitama, and when I was five years old, I attended swimming lessons at a local sports club. My parents used to pick me up afterward, but there was usually about an hour before they arrived. During that time, I was apparently always around the place where dance lessons were being held, just watching them. Then my parents asked me, “Are you interested in dancing?” and I started saying, “I want to do it!” Since I was only five, I honestly don’t remember it myself anymore.

➖ How did you then move toward pursuing street dance more seriously?

Around middle school, I started taking lessons from YASS. At the dance studio I attended at the time, almost everyone — including the teachers — was female besides me, so I hardly had opportunities to learn from male instructors. One day, my teacher encouraged me by saying, “Why don’t you go take YASS’s classes?”

When I was a kid, both KAI→ and I were among children gathered from all over Japan to appear on NHK’s Minna no Uta. I had known KAI→ since back then, and because he was active with LEO and the others, I was already familiar with YASS as well. So to me, YASS felt like someone close and familiar in a way.

A lot of the other kid dancers around me were already entering battles aggressively and making names for themselves from elementary school age, but honestly, I was pretty timid and battles scared me back then. However, once I got into middle school, I started challenging myself by entering battles and gradually became hooked on them. Around that same time, I grew closer with LEO and the others, and together we formed a team called Beat Soldier, which became a major part of my activities.

Appointed at 25 — The Challenge of Becoming a Mynavi DANCEALIVEProducer

➖ In addition to your activities as a performer through showcases and judging, you are currently the leader of List::X in D.LEAGUE, while also serving as a producer for Mynavi DANCEALIVE. Could you tell us how that came about?

The biggest turning point was definitely the COVID period. Until then, I had been living day-to-day just focusing on whatever goal was directly in front of me. But suddenly, work completely stopped and I found myself with a lot of free time. Out of nowhere, I had time to seriously think about my life and future. Before that, my work mostly consisted of weekday lessons and weekend workshops, so my daytime schedule was already relatively open.

At that point, I started thinking, “Maybe there’s something productive I can do with this time.” So I contacted Anomaly, the company that runs DANCEALIVE, and asked, “Is there anything I can help with?” That led to me working there part-time.

As I helped with operations, I gradually began to understand how the company functioned and what went on behind the scenes of event production. At the same time, I started speaking very directly to the management team, saying things like, “If you improve this area, dancers will trust you more,” or “For the sake of the dancers, I don’t think you should do this.”

I had known many of the staff members for years, and they had supported me throughout my career, so we already had a relationship where I could speak honestly with them — and they were willing to listen. I had also personally competed in DANCEALIVE as a battler, and I had always viewed the event from a player’s perspective. Because of that, I think I was able to give realistic opinions from the field, and those opinions carried a certain level of credibility.

➖ So even while working part-time, you were actively exchanging ideas with the previous producer, the charismatic KANTARO, and others?

Exactly. I think seeing that probably led them to decide, “We want to entrust this to him.” KANTARO told me that he wanted me to carry on and reshape the sharp counterculture spirit he had when he first started DANCEALIVE in his younger days. It seems like he had been thinking for a long time about the right timing for passing the project on to the next generation.

➖ Weren’t you overwhelmed by the pressure of suddenly being entrusted with one of Japan’s biggest dance events?

At first, I honestly took some time to think about it. Up until then, I had zero experience organizing events myself. But I’ve always had this feeling that my life has been guided by luck. Meeting my first teacher, meeting YASS, even becoming part of Beat Soldier — all of those opportunities came to me through good fortune first, and then I worked hard to live up to them.

So I felt that an opportunity like this would probably never come again in my life. I thought to myself, “We all die someday anyway, so I want to do everything I possibly can.” After thinking it over for a day, I decided to accept the role.

➖ It must have been difficult trying to run such a major event through trial and error from your very first year.

Honestly, my first year ended before I even fully understood what was happening. Suddenly I was managing budgets on a scale I had never handled before, and I found myself communicating directly with senior figures I had previously only watched from afar. It felt like I had jumped into a completely different world.

At the first Mynavi DANCEALIVE FINAL I produced, the schedule ran an entire hour behind. Things didn’t go nearly as smoothly as I had imagined, and it was honestly a huge shock and frustration for me.

Normally, I’m the type of person who recovers quickly even after getting discouraged, but this time it stayed with me for about a month. I even started thinking, “Maybe I really can’t do this.” But the people at Anomaly, the event organizers, supported me and guided me through it really well. Senior dancers also told me, “If you’re the one doing this, we’ll support you.” That encouragement meant a lot to me.

Embodying the Coexistence of Mainstream and Underground

➖ Amid all of this, you also joined D.LEAGUE as the leader of List::X. How did that come about?

The biggest reason was simply because I was asked to do it. At first, I was involved with List::X only behind the scenes without appearing publicly. But after performing as a special dancer for a one-time appearance, people from the List::X company strongly urged me to officially join. KANTARO also encouraged me, and that’s when I decided to step into the spotlight.

My mindset was basically, “If there’s something I can contribute, I’ll do it while I still can.” Rather than overthinking whether I could realistically handle the workload, I chose to fully commit myself.

➖ Being both a D.LEAGUE leader and the producer of Mynavi DANCEALIVE sounds incredibly demanding. What kind of mindset helps you balance both roles?

I’m actually a pretty optimistic person, so I generally approach everything in a positive way. The judging criteria in D.LEAGUE are very different from underground street dance battles, but I always tell my team members, “Even if we lose, let’s create dancing we’re not ashamed to show the world. Let’s make it meaningful.”

As long as we achieve that, I don’t think there’s any need to become overly depressed by losing. Of course, that’s all built on the assumption that we’re aiming to win in the first place.

➖ Is there anything you consciously think about when moving between underground and mainstream spaces?

I still feel there’s a tendency among some people to think mainstream activities are “uncool.” But I want to personally prove otherwise by being able to confidently say, “Even if I’m active in mainstream spaces, do I really look uncool to you?”

That’s why I try to fully commit myself to both sides without neglecting either one. No matter how busy my schedule gets, I still enter battles I genuinely want to compete in and aim to win them. At the same time, when I step into D.LEAGUE, I make sure to properly carry myself as a professional performer. I think being able to do both is something possible because of my age and energy right now.

That’s exactly why I still make sure to go to underground street dance events, and why I continue pursuing dance seriously to produce results myself. By showing this kind of hybrid lifestyle through my own actions, I hope younger dancers can think, “There are possibilities like this too.” If that happens, the dance scene will naturally expand, there will be more options available, and being a dancer as a profession can become much more sustainable than it is now.

➖ Maintaining that balance sounds extremely difficult. Why do you think you’re able to do it?

At the end of the day, I think it comes down to mindset. I completely understand the underground mentality and its strong sense of identity, but I also believe you can keep that spirit while still going out and earning money. People just need to step into more communities and share more spaces with each other.

Even now, I still interact with major artists through teaching lessons and other opportunities. At the same time, I continue challenging myself in battle scenes as an active battler, while also organizing battle events on the scale of Mynavi DANCEALIVE.

I’m not saying everyone should try to do everything the way I do. Rather, I want people to realize, “If someone like me can go this far, maybe changing your perspective a little and taking action could make life easier too.” There are so many things you can only understand after trying them for yourself.

Expanding the Pie and Enriching the Forest for Dancers

➖ Through Mynavi DANCEALIVE and D.LEAGUE, what vision and motivation are driving you forward?

At the core of everything is my desire to repay the people who supported me — my seniors and friends who helped me throughout my journey. Today there are many different forms of dance and more choices than ever, but I feel like there are very few moments where everyone is moving in the same direction.

Right now, it feels like everyone is searching for food and fighting over resources inside a small forest. Because I’ve experienced working in entertainment agencies, D.LEAGUE, and underground battle scenes alike, I want to tell people: “We all share the same love for dance, so let’s come together first and make the forest called the dance scene bigger.”

Once the forest itself becomes larger, everyone can live more freely. People can dance without limitations, and they can create spaces, parties, and events where they can fully express their individuality and personal tastes. I think helping create that environment is my own form of giving back.

Surprisingly, through operating DANCEALIVE, I realized that I’m actually the type of person who finds joy in making others happy, even if it requires self-sacrifice. More than becoming a world-famous dancer myself, I sometimes feel that my true happiness may come from creating an environment where the people around me can enjoy dance freely and without restrictions.

➖ Have you always had that kind of mindset?

No, not at all. In the past, my goals were much more immediate, like simply wanting to win battles. But during the COVID period, I suddenly had time to think deeply, and I realized that more than anything, I wanted to continue enjoying dance and living through it for the rest of my life.

Around that same time, the opportunity to work on DANCEALIVE came to me, and through all the pressure involved, I discovered the joy of dedicating myself to others. I’m not really the type who boldly leads from the front on my own initiative, but when people ask something of me, I’m the type who responds with everything I have.

To be honest, I basically have no hobbies outside of dance. I think about dance almost all the time. Recently I finally started making beats, but even that might not last forever (laughs). I get bored easily, but dance is the one thing I’ve been able to continue all this time, so I want to build the rest of my life around it moving forward.

Highlights of Mynavi DANCEALIVE 2026 FINAL

➖ We heard that you’ve introduced various reforms this season. Could you tell us specifically what has changed?

First of all, we added a new “POPPING” division to the battle categories. Personally, I simply love watching POPPING battles. Until now, people could see POPPING battles within the ALL STYLES category, but because ALL STYLES mixes dancers from many different genres together, that creates both its appeal and its difficulty.

POPPING has a huge number of battlers, and it’s also a genre that naturally excites audiences in an easy-to-understand way, so I really wanted to create a separate category for it. Dancers had also been telling me for a long time, “Please create a POPPING side,” so this was my answer to those voices. I think it’s pretty rare to see a POPPING battle with a ¥1,000,000 prize, so I hope it becomes a new stage of prestige for dancers.

➖ The battle between Team Senegal and Team Ghana has also become a major talking point.

Yes. Starting this season, as part of our DANCEALIVE WORLD initiative, we organized a representative battle between Senegal and Ghana. I think people will be able to experience the authentic energy unique to African dance culture.

Even among dancers themselves, people are constantly saying things like, “Senegal is insane!” That foreign atmosphere, unpredictability, and explosive energy — honestly, I think only a company like ours would go out of its way to bring something like that to life (laughs).

➖ We also heard that this year will feature a same-day qualifier for the first time.

That’s right. This year, we’re holding our very first “Same-Day Qualifier Cypher” on the underground stage first thing in the morning. Until now, I always felt bad that dancers who placed second at regional qualifiers held throughout the year across Japan didn’t really receive any kind of reward or recognition.

So I wanted to gather all of those talented dancers together and create something with the same kind of atmosphere as the revival round in M-1 Grand Prix. What’s unique is that there are no judges — the dancers battle each other directly, and instead of judging, they point to someone other than themselves. Whoever receives the most votes earns a seeded spot in the main stage tournament.

➖ Choosing the final tournament spot through dancers voting for each other without judges sounds incredibly intense.

This kind of system exists at some events in Europe, but I think it’s still very rare in Japan. DANCEALIVE can sometimes become too formalized, so I wanted to break apart the usual concepts by bringing back a sense of rawness and surprise. I think people are going to witness some truly heated, no-hard-feelings drama unfold.

➖ How do you currently view the battle scene overall? The level of kid dancers in particular seems to have risen dramatically.

The environment has unquestionably improved, and fairness in rules and smoothness in event management have also gotten much better. At the same time, today’s kid dancers possess skills that rival adults to the point where it feels like “there are no weak kids anymore.”

But honestly, there are moments where they’re almost too good, to the point that it becomes overwhelming. I’d like to see more of that raw determination kids used to have — that desperate feeling of “I absolutely want to win no matter what,” or the kind of mischievous cleverness unique to children. I want to see those emotions expressed more through their dancing as well.

Continuing to Stay Connected to Dance for Life

➖ Could you tell us about your personal vision for the future, TATSUKI?

Above all else, as long as I’m physically able to move, I want to continue valuing my activities as a player on the front lines while also maintaining the ability to handle work behind the scenes. Even if events become more business-oriented in the future, I’ll never completely devote myself 100% to business alone.

I already know for certain that dance will remain part of my life until the day I die, so no matter what form it takes, I want to keep working in ways that make people in the dance scene feel, “I’m glad I chose dance.” More than pursuing my own happiness, I genuinely hope the entire dance scene can become happier as a whole.

➖ Lastly, do you have a message for readers and for people who may be interested in Mynavi DANCEALIVE 2026 FINAL?

I think battle events can seem intimidating to first-time viewers, but the DANCEALIVE FINAL has a very simple structure: one-on-one battles inside Ryogoku Kokugikan, almost like sumo wrestlers facing off. I’d really love for not only dancers, but anyone who even slightly enjoys dance or music, to come experience it.

This year, there will also be a livestream, but due to copyright restrictions, the rule is that battlers must dance to completely unfamiliar original tracks they hear for the first time on the spot.

People within the battle scene may have initially viewed that negatively, but on the other hand, it’s also a chance for audiences to witness the true skill of dancers — seeing them create incredible battles entirely through improvisation to music they’ve never heard before.

Beyond the battles themselves, there are showcases happening all day long across four different stages, featuring everyone from kids to adults. Even just experiencing the festival-like atmosphere is guaranteed to be enjoyable, so I hope all “dance lovers” will come gather together.

Also, opportunities to see this many top-level dancers from across Japan — and even from around the world — all in one place are extremely rare. I hope people will come and discover their favorite dancers. We’ll be waiting for you at the venue!

TATSUKI｜Profile

“TATSUKI”
GRAYSOURCE / Bixbite / kophy / List::X

He started dancing at the age of five and spent his childhood fully immersed in dance. Currently, he is active through guest performances and workshops both in Japan and overseas.

• Winner, Juste Debout 2018 Japan Qualifier
• Winner, DANCE@LIVE 2019
• Winner, WDC 2025
• Winner, SELLOUT FINAL 2025
• Runner-up, SELLOUT FINAL 2026

He has achieved numerous outstanding results within the battle scene. In addition, since 2025, he has been participating in D.LEAGUE as the leader of List::X, actively working across both underground and mainstream scenes.

Since June 2023, he has also taken over as the producer and organizer of DANCEALIVE, continuing to work toward the further growth and development of the street dance scene.

Interview&text by Takako Ito