Yumi Umiumare

Born in Hyogo, Japan YUMI UMIUMARE is an established Butoh Dancer and choreographer based in Australia. She has been creating her distinctive style of works nearly 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 throughout Australia, Japan, Europe, New Zealand, South East Asia and South America, and have received critical acclaim and garnered several Australian Green Room awards. As a choreographer, Yumi has worked with many socially engaged theatre projects in Australia with aboriginal communities, refugees, culturally diverse groups and companies with and without disabilities. Yumi is a recipient of an Australia 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. She is currently co-artistic director of ButohOUT! Festival in Melbourne. www.yumi.com.au

Tea Politics

Coming to Australia, I found people very free with improvisation, which was very liberating. I met a few people who did open performance not according to a defined style of dance. So, I was very intrigued by that. And comedy, a strong sense of comedy. People say Melbourne is the capital of comedy in Australia. I was really excited to see a sort of essence of humour. Read more...