In this episode of Deep Down, I sit down with my lifelong friend and collaborator, Masumi Saito, an extraordinary movement artist whose work resists easy categorisation. Over nearly two decades, we’ve made art together across stages, galleries, and films, and this conversation captures a beautiful moment where we pause to talk about the deeper threads behind it all.

We speak about what it means to communicate through movement rather than words, and how her Japanese heritage, which is something she once tried to shed, has become a powerful anchor in her life and practice. Masumi opens up about the loss of her mother, and how grief deepened her connection to ritual, culture, and beauty. We explore her resistance to titles like “choreographer” or “dancer,” and why “movement artist” finally feels like the truest reflection of how she navigates the world.

This is a conversation about joy, identity, silence, naming, and what it means to live seriously, and playfully, at the same time.