Yumi Umiumare
(Photo: Gregory Lorenzutti)
Born in Hyogo, Japan, Yumi is an established Butoh Dancer and choreographer from Australia. She has been creating her distinctive style of works over the last 25 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 throughout 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 (1999-2014), EnTrance (2009-2012) and recent PopUp Tearoom series.
As a choreographer, Yumi has worked with many socially engaged theatre projects in Australia with aboriginal communities (BighART), refugees communities, (Asylum Seekers Resource Centre), culturally diverse people (Brunswick Women’s Theatre) and company with and without disability group(Weave Movement Theatre).
Most recently Yumi has choreographed a work for Japan Contemporary Dance Network for their national dance festival. Yumi is a recipient of the fellowship from Australian Council (2015-16) and the recent winner of the Green Room Awards of Geoffrey Milne Memorial Award for her contribution to Contemporary and Experimental Performance. Yumi has been working as artistic director of Butoh Festival in Melbourne since 2016.
