The aim of this workshop on the Dee River, Yarra Valley was to develop body awareness and expression through a response to landscape. The lush landscape in Yarra Valley allows participants to move between bush land, hills, open fields and river, opening up the senses to color, texture, sound and form. Over the weekend, Yumi will introduce various methods of Butoh, Body Awareness and Consciousness of Well-being with various Japanese techniques.
Butoh - Originating in Japan out of the turbulent protest culture of the early 1960's, Butoh has a literal translation of BU - dance TOH - stomping. Earlier named Ankoku Butoh (the Dance of Darkness), it is one of the major developments in contemporary dance in the latter half of the twentieth century.
"Butoh belongs to life and death. It is a realization of the distance between a human being and the unknown. It also represents man’s struggle to overcome the distance between himself and the material world. Butoh dancers’ bodies are like a cup filled to overflowing, one which cannot take one more drop of liquid – the body enters a state of perfect balance."
'Ngapartji Ngapartji' translates as 'I give you something, you give me something' and this concept of reciprocity is at the heart of the broader Ngapartji Ngapartji project. Using 'puntu' (body), 'inma' (song) and 'tjukurpa' (story) and performed in Pitjantjatjara, English, Japanese, Hazari and Greek, Ngapartji Ngapartji explores the impact of the Cold War on the 20th century through the prism of Trevor's family experience in the South Australian desert.
“A pure gift” Alison Croggon, Theatre Notes
“It’s a magical piece of theatre” Sybil Nolan, The Herald Sun
Writers: Scott Rankin & co-creator Trevor Jamieson
Choreography: Yumi Umiumare
Director: Scott Rankin
Key performer: Trevor Jamieson
Performers: Yumi Umiumare, Jangala Jamieson, Saira Luther, Andrew MacGregor, Lex Marinos, Beth Sometimes, Lorna Wilson, Pitjantjatjara young people and the Ngapartji Ngapartji Choir
Christchurch Sept 25 - Oct 12 The Body Festival of Dance and Physical Theatre
Byron Bay (Northern Rivers Performing Arts), Cairns (On Edge Contemporary Media & Performance), Melbourne (ACMI), Sydney (Performance Space Carriageworks), Hobart (Salamanca Arts Centre), Perth (Perth Institute of Contemporary Art) , Noosa, Brisbane World Dance Alliance & Ausdance QLD
A compendium of short dance films from around the world hosted by Frances Rings (Aust) and Jonzi D (from the UK). Launched last December at the Australian High Commission in London and screened as part of the 4th International Dance Film Festival in Yokohama, 2008, this is a unique and exciting collaboration between the ABC, the Australian Council, Channel 4 (UK) and the Arts Council England.
The first of the series of three 30 minute dance programs to be shown over consecutive Tuesday’s in Artscape, includes the especially commissioned works Dis-oriental from Sean O'Brien, choreographed and performed by Yumi Umiumare and Rosie Dennis & Samuel James with Quietly Collapsed.
CHIKA is a multi-layered production which crosses the genres of journalism, visual and performing arts, incorporating original live music, dance and narration, documentary images, archival video and recorded interviews to tell a story - the story of Chika Honda, a Japanese woman who spent a decade in Australian jails for a crime she has always insisted she did not commit.
Thank you all who contributed to the success of the CHIKA Melbourne Fundraiser - those who attended the performance, performers Anne Norman (Shakuhachi), Yumi Umiumare (Butoh), Toshi Sakamoto (Japanese traditional drum), Noriko Tadano (Tsugaru Jamisen), guest speaker Mr Remy van de Wiel (QC) and MC Yoko Davies (former producer of Japanese program, SBS Radio).
Five female choreographers have each created a solo dance for a male dancer.
Performed in the round, this vibrant collection consists of a diverse and surprising combination of dance forms and content
An autonomously created cohesive musical composition will overlay the five individual works and be introduced to the performances for the first time on the eve before opening night.
Since completing a Bachelor in Performing Arts with Honors in Visual Culture and a second major in Drama and a minor in Dance at Monash University Melbourne, Gulsen has worked as a choreographer, writer, performer and director, as well as a workshop facilitator, dramaturge, curator and producer in the performing and visual arts. Gulsen is currently developing a new dance-theatre work entitled 'Iris' in creative partnership with Dani-Ela Kayler. "My vision for Girls on Boys is to create a diverse program which encourages new collaborations and involves taking risks. The program title is intentionally provocative marking an old primary school term for dividing into teams to play a game i.e. "Boys on girls", "Girls on boys."
Your Collection
girls on boys has come about through "Your Collection", a Dancehouse initiative that sought expressions of interest from artists to curate a season of short works. Dancehouse provides support to the artist in curating the program and presents their "collection"in a fully promoted public performance season. Like a clothing line, book of stamps or a shed full of biscuit tins, this dance collection is Gulsen Ozer's Collection.
The music for CHIKA was composed by Thomas Fitzgerald, with one exquisite work, the Koto Solo by Satsuki Odamura. This unusual collaboration of instruments featuring koto, shakuhachi, wadaiko, acoustic and electric violin and keyboards, blends live music and pre recorded acoustic and electronic sounds with a unique result. It is the sum of these myriad combinations of a surreal reality that have become CHIKA's musical world.
The Chika Soundtrack features a vocal track by Yumi Umiumare.
Beyond Butoh (BB0#) series has been directed, curated and facilitated by Tony Yap and Yumi Umiumare since 2001 to provide the local Butoh community an opportunity to investigate, explore and stretch the limits of what we understand as the intrinsic meaning of Butoh. The long-term vision for this series is a grander scale festival encompassing all idiosyncratic interpretation of Butoh in performance from local and international artists.
A Butoh event
facilitated by
Yumi Umiumare & Janette Hoe
The idea for Shapes Within Life is provoked by the famous debate between Kazuo Ono and Tatsumi
Hijikata, the creators of Ankoku Butoh – Dance of Darkness, discussion on the definition of Butoh.
Ono said “Life should not be chasing Form but that Form should follow from Life” and Hijikata said
“Form should be leading Life”.
The performers create movement sequences and collect choreography vocabularies (Shape/Form)
from an individual’s interpretation toward Life.
DIRECTED BY Yumi Umiumare
PERRFORMERS:
Amadis Lacheta, Ann Fuata, Anna Maclean, Antonia Green, Craig Peade, Ellen Rijs,
Felicity Hopkins, Georgia Snowball, Geraldine Morey, Giselle, Janette Hoe,
Jeremy Neideck, Josephine Fisher, Lily Paskas, Mariela Paz Laratro, Medea Red Sea Luminea Fox,
Myfanwy Aldersun, Natalie O’Connor, Xristi Dcruz
THE BURLESQUE HOUR SIZZLES @ THE FAMOUS SPIEGELTENT
The Burlesque Hour. SIZZLES! Legendary iconoclast Maude Davey with her infamous and fabled strawberry act; Moscow circus trained circus and burlesque star Azaria Universe; Japanese butoh dancer and shock cabaret artiste Yumi Umiumare and guest artiste Clare Bartholomew's Pierre - Magician and Love Machine!
Nov/Dec
Butoh residential workshop
The aim of this workshop was to develop body awareness and expression through a response to landscape. This 140 acre site nearby to Mt Arapiles allowed participants to move between bush land, sand dunes, open fields, river and elevated rock, opening up the senses to color, texture, sound and form.
Over the weekend, Yumi introduced various methods of Butoh, Body Awareness and Consciousness of Well-being. Qi Gong /Tai Chi Teacher Andy Green was invited to introduce us to a way of controlling and focusing the inner energy. The se body works acted as powerful counterpoints as opportunities to filter one into the other, strengthening the links between the external environment and the internal landscape.
BB0# series has been directed, curated and facilitated by Tony Yap and Yumi Umiumare since 2001 to provide the local Butoh communities an opportunity to investigate, explore and stretch the limits of what we understand as the intrinsic meaning of Butoh. The long-term vision for this series is a grander scale festival encompassing all idiosyncratic interpretation of Butoh in performance from local & International artists.
ARTISTS: Jarrod Benson, Tom Davis, Josephine Fisher, Janette Hoe, Geraldine Morey, Daniel Mounsey, Gabrielle New, Alana Picone, Sharna Vrhowec, Megumi Sasaki, Yumi Umiumare, Tony Yap
Azaria Universe, Moira Finucane and Yumi Umiumare in performance with the legendary gender in performance icon Maude Davey, and luminous guest artistes cult British cabaret star Ursula Martinez and Bartholomew's epic-tragic clown Pierre: Magician and Love Machine.
Opening The City of Women Festival in Ljubljiana, Slovenia; The Burlesque Hour will go on to seasons with renowned cultural venues Drugo More in Rijeka, Croatia, and Teatro Miela in Trieste.
Sept/Oct
Undiscovered Country National Cultural Diversity Cluster
Undiscovered Country emanates from a project involving some of Australia's best-known contemporary Australian artists
The work of the originating artists Hossein Valamanesh, William Yang, Hung Le, Yumi Umiumare and Anna Yen, come together at the Adelaide Festival Centre in Undiscovered Country
Following the conclusion of a creative development with Yumi Umiumare, Tokyo-based Butoh Diva, Mutsuko Tanaka, will present a studio performance of a solo work based on her first experience in Australia.
Meat Market
180 SECONDS IN HEAVEN OR HELL
art - meets - blood - meets - sport
Part title fight, part sideshow alley, 180 Seconds in Heaven or Hell brings artists and art forms together through one massive live-art experience; like a speeding burlesque show, art forms collide in turbulent three minute episodes, over three stages and three hours.
This year's theme, Sweeping the Dust, brought performers, visual artists and musicians into metaphysical or spiritual interpretations of cleansing.
Together within the structures of six sections and in the span of six hours, the artists spontaneously created a common poetic theme.
¤ Facilitated by Tony Yap and Yumi Umiumare ¤ Lighting designer Dori Bicchierai ¤ Musicians Tim Humphrey, Madeleine Flynn
Artists included Benjamin Ardley, Ingrid Baring, Adam Broinowski, Moira Finucane, Peter Fraser, Josephine Fisher, Madeleine Flynn, Nic Hempel, Janette Hoe, Mike Hornblow, Tim Humphrey, Mariela Laratro, Edgar Loutit, Geraldine Morey, Daniel Mounsey, Ben Rogan, Emma Strapps, Gretel Taylor, Yumi Umiumare, Tomoko Yamasaki and Tony Yap.
Chika a documentary performance by Mayu Kanamori
Dance performance by Yumi Umiumare Satsuki Odamura (koto), Anne Norman (Shakuhachi), Toshinori Sakamoto (Wadaiko), Tom Fitzgerald (violin & keyboard)
2005 February
girls on the floor @ Loop midsumma festival, Melbourne
Mixed doses of avant garde moving images & performance DJ's & VJ's : Mo ichi & Minh and L lady Y kronK
with performance by The Town Bikes & Yumi Umiumare
2005 January
Eavesdrop
Energex, Brisbane; Melbourne International Arts Festival; Sydney Festival
David Pledger, Artistic Director of 'Not Yet It's Difficult' and Jeffrey Shaw, world-renowned pioneer of interactive cinema, push the cinematic and the theatrical imaginary in this extraordinary new work.
The Burlesque Hour The Studio at Sydney Opera House Moira Finucane, Jackie Smith, Azaria Universe, Yumi Umiumare
in Association with Finucane & Smith
Special Guest Toni Lamond
The Burlesque Hour Premiere season at fourtyfive downstairs, Melbourne Moira Finucane, Jackie Smith, Azaria Universe, Yumi Umiumare
2004 July
Women In Transit Dance Performance season at Performance Space, Sydney
Rakini: India/Australia (NSW), Yumi Umiumare: Japan /Australia (VIC), DD Dorvillier: USA (New York)
2004 May/June
Project in Broome with MARRUGEKU produced by STALKER THEATRE COMPANY.
2004 April/May
DasSHOKU Hora!! Showing of work in progress, Dante's Fitzroy
.such a fertile ground, collaboration performance, installation by Anthony Pelchen
2001 February ~March
Performance in the theatre production Miss Tanaka with Handspan Visual Theatre, at the Playbox
2000 October
Performance in the theatre production Meat Party by Duong Le Quy, Playbox, Melbourne International Festival
2000 August
INORI-in-visible Solo performance in Mixed Metaphor season at Dancehouse
2000
INORI-in-visible 5th year memorial of Hanshin Earthquake, Town Hall, Vega Hall, and Women's Centre in Takarazuka City
2000 July
Japan: Tradition in a Modern Age with Satsuki Odamura & Anne Norman, The Boite's Winter Festival, Melbourne Town Hall
2000 May
"Journey of the Northern Tiger", Blue Mountains `Songs of Wind Festival` & Canberra Choreographic Center with Wu-Lin Dance Theatre
Guest Performance in `LIVE ACTS` with Chunky Move at Blackbox, Melbourne, Next Wave Festival
2000 April
Future Fusion, Solo performance as a part of Theatreworks events, Performance in Asian music and dance festival with Satsuki Odamura at the Studio, Sydney Opera House
INORI-in-visible , Solo Performance in collaboration with Anthony Pelchen, Takarazuka City, Japan (International Cultural Exchange Grant by Arts Victoria)
Performances in 'Song of Wind Festival' (Blue Mountains) and Asian dance and music festival (Sydney)
Japanese Arts Festival (Glen Eira Arts Complex, Melbourne) with Satsuki Odamura How could you even begin to understand? #2, with Tony Yap in ANTISTATIC99, Sydney
"Keiken no keiken" Solo performance at Kobe Union Church, Japan
"Masterkey" by Mary Moore, Adelaide & Perth International festival
1997 Nov~Dec
"Love Suicides" by John Romeril, Canberra Melbourne( Playbox)
1997 June~July
Amleto (Hamlet) with Theatro Dioniso & Tony Yap
Festivale dell Colline torinese & Portevenere Festivale, Italy (International Cultural Exchange Program from Arts Victoria)
Crack with Butchaketa in Melbourne Fringe Festival
1994
Dozan Solo performance, Castlemaine Festival
1994
Tour with Hanayagi Genshu Human Theatre, Osaka, Yamagata, Japan
1993
Monogokoro Solo Performance, Melbourne Fringe Festival
1993
Memoire de fruit, Japanese Theatre season with Harupin-Ha at Le Rond de Point Theatre, Paris
1992
Ugetsu with DaiRakudakan
1992
Toured with Japanese Women's Butoh group Toyokai, around North Japan and Genshu Hanayagi
1992
1991
1990
1990
Buddha's Banquet, Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne
Sea Dappled Horse, Melbourne International Festival Sea Dappled Horse, with DaiRakudakan, Tokyo Ayakashi; with Toyokai, performed in Ueno, Tokyo, 1990
Yumi Umiumare, Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith in JAPAN!!
