Socially Engaged Projects
Wanna Be a Rabbit? the show by Weave Movement Theatre directed by Yumi Umiumare is postponed till 2022
Wannabe A Rabbit? invites audiences on an investigation between the surreal ad the absurd; exploring universal human themes like:Will I ever be perfect? Am I invisible? How do I get out of here? My sheets need a wash. It’s dark. Is that a rabbit? The show is going to be premiered 2020.
Presented by Weave Movement Theatre and Yumi Umiumare, White Day Dream is a unique fusion between Butoh and physical theatre performed by dancers with and without disability.
Hipbone Sticking Out is a major theatre production made with the community of Roebourne, Western Australia, as part of the Yijala Yala Project. It premiered in Canberra as part of the Centenary of Canberra in 2013, and in 2014 it toured to Roebourne, Perth and Melbourne.
A work in progress performance devised by the creative team in collaboration with women from the sex industry, men and youth( platform youth theatre).Through the stories of local and traffic women we ask, what is the impact of the sex industry upon us all?
Not Just My Story is a special opportunity for audiences to encounter the human face of compelling asylum seeker stories. Weaving together the moments, memories and voices of the performers, the work challenges the popular narrative of seeking asylum in Australia. Not Just My Story will open your heart to the potential of our shared humanity.
Ngapartji Ngapartji was a community development and Indigenous language maintenance/revitalisation project produced by the Australian arts and social change company Big hART conducted in various locations across the Anangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in Central Australia and in Alice Springs.
Cross - Cultural Projects
Yumi is creating a new solo work Buried TeaBowl, an interdisciplinary work with dance, text, song and poetry, inspired by Japanese female dancer/shaman, Okuni in 1600’s. The work in progress was completed in Aug 2021, and will be premiered in a live and digital performance in 2022.
The Art Gallery of South Australia will host the 2018 World Tea Gathering this November as part of the OzAsia Festival. Tea artists from Australia, France, Japan, Brazil and Germany will assemble from the 2nd to 9th of November, presenting a week of pop-up events and performances celebrating the art of tea.
Yumi is joining Back to Back Theatre’s Tokyo tour, performing in their masterpiece, small metal objects, a theatre show in the public domain; part voyeuristic meditation, part urban thriller.
An ingenious theatrical gem, small metal objects unfolds amidst the high volume pedestrian traffic of Ikebukuro Nishiguchi-park. With individual sets of headphones, the audience is wired into an intensely personal drama being played out somewhere in the crowd.
White Day Dream series explores the space between dream and reality. Like a dream itself, the work recalls subconscious emotions, where things are at once unexpectedly linked and disconnected.This is a newly created 30min physical theatre work working with local Japanese visual artists and performers.
A series of experimentations of visual poetries, film work and physical theatre, inspired by Yumi’s own experience of her brother who had a cerebral hemorrhage. Is it really happening right in front of us or are we daydreaming? What if our piled up memories were suddenly erased? Our memories are like a heritage but our brain could hemorrhage.
Collaboration with Brunswick Women's Theatre, the project aims to provide a supportive, creative environment for all women, particularly women from Non-English Speaking backgrounds and other under represented groups, to explore the richness of their own lives through the use of theatre and performance skills.
Once Upon a Midnight is a Japanese/Australian rock musical. The script is bilingual, featuring seven Japanese performers and seven Australian performers. It follows the adventures of Kelsey Clarke and the warrior doll Nozomi as they journey to the Underground to liberate the monster world from the mysterious Angelica.
Site Specific Projects
ProximiTEA @Abbotsford Convent, April 2024
Proximi TEA was performed as a part of celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Abbotsford Convent in April 2024.
SereniTEA
@Mona Foma , Feb 2023
At Fairy Dell, Cataract Gorge, Launceston
SereniTEA was performed as a part of Morning Meditation program in Mona Foma 2023/
As a durational contemporary ritual, Yumi serves many bowls of CuriosiTEA to the general public, artists and tourists, to activate and provoke cultural encounters and personal interactions.
Super-NaturaliTEA in Warsaw September 2019
Performance by Yumi Umiumare and, Adam Sōmu Wojciński, Teatr Limen Butoh: Sylwia Hanff, Marzena Brzezinska, Magdalena Jakubów and Anna Sulejewicz (guest) and Akitsu Orii (flute) during the International Day of Peace. It was really super-naturaliTEA! Pictures by Krzysztof Stacha
Exploring femininity in both personal and cultural cliché ways, Luminous Lunas celebrates the beauty of feminine strength- from the softer essence of beauty, crazy pop icons, surreal and mystical characters to the mundane everyday housewives.
The pop-up TEAroom series offers various experiences through the rituals of tea ceremonies, installation and performance. Audiences are invited to sit and have a bowl of green tea and pop-up performances will be happening during rituals.
A few images from a larger body of work "Performanscape" created for the Core program of the 2013 Ballarat International Foto Biennale in collaboration with Vikk Shayen a Melbourne based Photographer. All performers were shot on location, nothing was added in post-production.
Educational Projects
Jujutsu Project is a research project by Yumi Umiumare, exploring Jujutsu, the Japanese notion of shamanism. Yumi works with three artists and five specialists, including a first nations artist, a celebrant, scientists, a veterinarian/animal communicator and artists from diverse backgrounds in Australia, Japan & USA via online and live meetings.
Step inside the playful and imaginative world of Japanese Butoh. With a smiling shaman as your guide, you’ll jump headfirst into a world of transformation and shape-shifting, unleashing your inner animal, object, kook and spook.
Melbourne’s legendary Yumi Umiumare, leads student performers in the creation of a playful, transgressive and hyper-energized hybrid. Combining the physical extremes of butoh and the emotional intimacy of cabaret, Trans-Mute will reframe everyday stories as strange outlandish songs and dances.