Yumi Umiumare

Photo: Toshiki Tanaka

Yumi Umiumare
Artistic director / Choreographer / Performer / Lead creative

Born in Hyogo, Japan, Yumi Umiumare is an established Butoh Dancer and choreographer living in Australia. She has been creating her distinctive style of works for the last 30 years and her works are renowned for provoking visceral emotions and cultural identities.

Yumi’s works have been seen in numerous festivals in dance, theatre and film productions through- out Australia, Japan, Europe, New Zealand, South East Asia and South America, and have received critical acclaim and garnered several Australian Green Room awards. Her own major production’s credits include DasSHOKU Butoh cabaret series (1999-), EnTrance (2009-2012) and PopUp Tearoom series(2015-) and just premiered her solo work Buried TeaBowl- OKUNI(2022). 

As a choreographer, Yumi has worked with many socially engaged theatre projects in Australia with Aboriginal communities (BighART & Marrugeku), refugees communities, (Asylum Seekers Resource Centre), culturally diverse people (Brunswick Women’s Theatre) and inclusive company (Weave Movement Theatre& Back to Back Theatre). 

Yumi has also choreographed a work for Japan Contemporary Dance Network for their national dance festival and short work for Lucy Guerin Inc.Yumi is a recipient of the fellowship from Australian Council (2015-16) and the winner of the Green Room Awards of Geoffrey Milne Memorial Award for her outstanding contribution to Contemporary and Experimental Performance.Yumi is a key figure of the international contemporary Butoh scene and artistic director of ButohOUT! in Melbourne since 2017, teaching and activating local and international Butoh communities.  

www.yumi.com.au