As the saying goes, "If you chase two hares, you'll catch neither" — but award-winning actor Mirai Moriyama is proving the exception who's broken this rule by adding "top-flight dancer" to his resume.
Although the 31-year-old Kobe native actually started dance lessons at age 5, he made his career as a stage actor and star of the big and small screens following his 1999 debut in Amon Miyamoto's hit comic musical, "Boys Time."
In October 2013, he went to Israel as a "Japan cultural envoy" of the Agency of Cultural Affairs, spending a year with the Tel Aviv-based Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak Dance Company founded in 1992 by that duo of artists trained in dance and acting, respectively.