|
Born in Hyogo, Japan, Yumi is trained in classical ballet and modern dance and has a degree in Physical Education from Kobe University (1988). Yumi is the only Japanese Butoh Dancer in Australia and the creator of original Butoh Cabaret works. Originally a member of the seminal Butoh Company DaiRakudakan in Tokyo, she came to Australia to perform at the Melbourne International Festival in 1991.
"Yumi has appeared in numerous dance, theatre and film productions in Australia, Japan, Europe, and south-east Asia. She is also an independent performance artist, and has performed at many major national and international festivals including Adelaide Festival, Perth Festival, Melbourne, Sydney Festival, Canberra National Multicultural Festival, OzAsia Festival (Adelaide), TARANAKI festival (New Zealand) Hong Kong City fringe Festival, I-Dance Festival (Hong Kong), JADE2002 (Tokyo), International Contemporary Dance Festival (Osaka), Festivale dell Colline torinese (Torino), Portevenere Festivale (Italy), and Japanese Theatre season (Paris), Trace-Post Butoh Festival (Copenhagen), Image of Asia Festival (Copenhagen), Edinburgh Fringe Festival, City of Women International Festival (Slovenia) and Zurich theatre festival (Zurich).
Yumi's unique Butoh Cabaret series, DasSHOKU Productions, features Yumi in Tokyo DasSHOKU Girl (winner of Green Room and Fringe Awards), a provocative Butoh Cabaret performed at the Melbourne Fringe in 1999 and toured around Australia. The adapted version, DasSHOKU Cultivations!! had a sell-out season in Osaka in 2003 and new work DasSHOKU Hora!! was premiered in Melbourne in November 2005.
Her other major dance theatre productions are Fleeting Moments (two Green Room Awards, 1998), How could you even begin to understand? (collaboration with Tony Yap, Green Room Award 2001) , in-compatibility (Melbourne International Festival 2003), INORI-in-visible (Toured Takarazuka City, Japan, Melbourne and Copenhagen). She has worked in the theatre/ dance productions in Australia with Playbox, Handspan visual theatre, N.Y.I.D, Theatre Kantanka, Chunky Move, Marrugeku and BighArt. Yumi has worked with Funucane and Smith in Short Shape Shift (2003), Saucy Cantina (Hong Kong City Fringe 2004), The Banquet Room (BB05, Dancehouse 2005) and in the constantly sell out seasons of The Burlesque Hour (2004-2010 National and International Tours)
She has also featured in acclaimed short documentary film by Sean O’Brien, Sunrise at Midnight, Butoh Cabaret and Full Moon Trance and Dis-Oriental. Her choreographic works includes Beyond Butoh series, Ngapartji Ngapartji, Girls on Boys and Once Upon A Midnight, rock’n’roll musical performed in Okinawa (Japan) and OzAsia Festival in Adelaide. Most recently Yumi has premiered critically acclaimed full length solo work EnTrance, one-woman dance theatre with multimedia and installations which was nominated 3 Green Room Awards.
Yumi teaches Butoh regularly and curates the Beyond Butoh Festival with Tony Yap in Melbourne.
"Umiumare's psychological presentation of caricature is salted with just the right degree of humor and tragedy." In Press Magazine, 1995
"Umiumare's inventiveness and physical discipline were evidenced in the way she could almost redesign her physique to embody her different characters." The Age 1999
"Yumi Umiumare was not animal on the stage, on the contrary, she seemed like a deformed human being. ..she posses the ability to make their extreme bodies disappear and transform into Butoh power. Or to make the earth disappear. .."
Information, Copenhagen 2003
"....Yumi Umiumare does incredibly intense solo in which her Japanese heritage and butoh dance background provide an irresistible focus for small actions on personal or domestic themes that hint at larger concerns...... Sydney Morning Herald 2004
“..an Impassioned and beautiful piece, constantly rich and surprising in its emotional range, and finally very moving.” The Australian 2009
“ Yumi Ｕｍｉｕｍａｒｅ is a living treasure” Herald Sun2009
| 
