Before calling Salt Lake City home, Sayoko experienced her formative years in Tokyo, Japan and Seattle, WA. She studied at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and received her BFA and MFA in Ballet with an emphasis in Choreography from the University of Utah. She danced professionally for LED Boise, Idaho Dance Theatre, and Ballet Bellevue.  Sayoko choreographed ballets for Ballet Idaho, Ballet Arkansas, University of Utah, Ballet West Academy, Artémotion, Chrysalis, MOGA Conservatory, Barlow Arts Conservatory, Idaho Dance Theatre, Idaho Regional Ballet, Ballet Bellevue, Salt Lake City Ballet, Municipal Ballet Company, Salt Lake Ballet Cooperative, and independent artists and students.  She is the winner of the Youth America Grand Prix choreographer award in San Francisco (2010), Denver (2012), and Salt Lake City (2019, 2022, 2023), finalist of Ballet Arkansas’s Visions Choreography competition (2014), and the Rocky Mountain Choreography Competition (2023). Sayoko recently choreographed “Seussical” for the Hale Center Theater Orem and is commissioned to choreograph their next production of “Cinderella” for The Ruth. She is currently serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Utah’s School of Dance.