Yet when she is out on the floor, with flowing music, she can really work the crowd.

Every day I see confident, healthy and motivated young gymnasts take their skills out of the gym and apply them to their work at school and in the community.

I wanted the kids to be able to leave (a meet) thinking they had done something special.

For me, making music has always been a very spiritual thing, and I think anybody who produces records has to feel that, at least a little bit. Producing a record . . . the idea of taking a song, envisioning the overall sound in my head and then bringing the arrangement to life in the studio . . . well, that gives me satisfaction like nothing else.

Music has always been an inspiring factor in my work, and this piece portrays a DJ performing his craft.

I hear this production very much as a kind of chamber music work. And as it happens, Murakami ia a great music lover and even ran a jazz club in Tokyo.