Sheryl Murakami

Sheryl Murakami is a Los Angeles-born choreographer and dancer whose athletic jazz-funk vocabulary shaped some of the twenty-first century's most visible pop dance imagery. She began dancing and performing at five, training in ballet, tap, and jazz before expanding into hip-hop and salsa. Professional work in television, film, commercials, and recording-artist projects began at sixteen.

Murakami spent roughly fifteen years based in New York City, where she performed, taught, and formed a dance company. Her practice merged classical line and placement with the attack, groove, and camera awareness of commercial dance—a synthesis that caught the attention of choreographer and creative director Frank Gatson Jr.

Their collaboration led to work with Beyoncé. Murakami choreographed "Ego," "Run the World (Girls)," and "Dance for You." For "Run the World (Girls)," Murakami shared the 2011 MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography with Gatson and Jeffrey Page. She has also choreographed for recording artists including Pitbull, Nicky Jam, Zion y Lennox, Thalía, 2NE1, and Jolin Tsai, across tours, videos, and commercial projects.

Teaching has remained central to her influence. Her jazz-funk classes draw on commercial, Latin, pop, rock, and alternative movement vocabularies while maintaining jazz technique and physical rigor. Guest choreography for television programs including *Bring It!* and *Dancing with the Stars* extended her pedagogical reach. This teaching practice helps explain how her influence circulates through working dancers as well as finished screen work.