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PAST WORK
PAST WORK: DASSHOKU SERIES
DasSHOKU Butoh Cabaret repertoire- the unique ‘culture crush dementia’- which has been recognised by audiences in sell-out seasons nationally and internationally since 1999. ‘Dashoku suru’ is a Japanese term meaning to bleach, to strip off colour and the works have been exploring the notion of bleaching; bleaching away commonly held views of cultural stereo types and cliché. The works provoke both personal and cultural identity and also raises questions about the meaning of ‘cross’ culture, as one could be interpreted as ‘killing’ (crossing off) each other.
The award-winning DasSHOKU Butoh Cabaret series that has been recognised by audiences in sell-out seasons around the world since 1999. The show gained rave responses from audiences and critically acclaimed reviews, receiving Green Room Awards for INNOVATION in cabaret category, and the Fringe Award – Innovation in Culturally Diverse Practice.
DasSHOKU suru is a Japanese term meaning to bleach, to strip off colour. Hora! in Japanese means Look Out! In DasSHOKU Hora!!, the third in the DasSHOKU series, Yumi and the DasSHOKU team strip back the candy-coloured surface of Japanese culture and tickle its hoary underbelly.
Tokyo DasSHOKU Girl touches on the shadowy life of Japan which many would never encounter. DasSHOKU (to bleach) strips off the colour of the superficial to reveal the reality behind the happy face of consumerism, bleaching away the commonly held views of Japanese women as kawai, or cute, polite and submissive.
Dancing between two contrasting cultures (Osaka and Melbourne), Umiumare tactically manipulated two languages and smoothly proceeded with the whole show. The balance of the contexts and the sense of timing in each scene change was incredible.
PAST WORK: DANCE WORK
I've become puffy 'mother earth', surreally dancing (digitally) in this project in Adelaide. Fill The Earth 11 - 14 JUL 2024. Go and check it, if you are near by!
Performed at FRAME in 2023 at Dancehouse
Performed by Yumi Umiumare, Kayo Tamura and Kyoko Amara
Installation by Jacqui Stockdale
Sound by Ai Yamamoto
Punk, playful, and exuberant, this is an intimately epic and profanely sacred ritual.
Buried TeaBowl -OKUNI is an intimate and epic solo performance installation bringing together dance, text, song and tea ceremony with stunning film captured in 2021 during the lockdown.The work is inspired by the Japanese historical female dancer and shaman Okuni, who initiated Kabuki theatre in the early 1600s, which women were banned from performing after these times.
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.
TEA BREAK is a new full-length solo work in development, combining dance, spoken words and multimedia. Blending Butoh, Tea and visual theatre, Yumi explores the space between rituals and daily routines of drinking tea.
Yumi was one of the 5 choreographers of the 5 days performance season of PIECES FOR SMALL SPACES at Lucy Guerin Inc, 13-17 Dec 2017.
EnTrance is a critically acclaimed full-length solo work with multimedia and installations within the metaphor of ‘the near shore’ of life and ‘the far shore’ of death. Award-winning dancer Yumi Umiumare performs the mystical conundrum of ‘the space between’ amid the hubbub of our city-life. ‘EnTrance opens heart, body and soul to the transformations that direct the human spirit.’ Canberra Times 2011
Sakasama: the reverse world. The two worlds of Life and Death are described as two shores; one is ‘the near shore’ (the world of the living), and the other is ‘the far shore’ (the world of after-death). A river flows between them. ‘The far shore’ is a reversed world: it is the reverse of the world of the living and everything is upside down.
ZeroZero was the second in a triptych and has premiered in Melbourne, in Feb 2013. Collaborated between Tony Yap, Yumi Umiumare and Matthew Gingold, ZeroZero explores the spaces between fullness and emptiness, visibility and invisibility. It was presented in Bogota, Columbia (2014) and Melbourne International festival (2014).
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.
In collaboration with Indonesian Australian media artist Bambang Nurcahyadi to experiment and create visual poetries- rich tapestry and narratives through ‘e-motion tracking’ process, dividing into different chapters. The audience/viewer’s interactions will be also tested in the process to add another layer that provokes the their expressions and emotion.
PAST WORK: ARCHIVAL
Celebrating its third year, ButohOUT! 2020 offers five workshops and two performance seasons exploring the artistic theme of ‘Primal Colour.’ In earlier expressions of Butoh, dancers typically wore white body paint, believed to 'erase' the performers excessive and artificial layers to ‘de-identify’ them.
IN LIGHT OF RECENT UNFORSEEN EVENTS LINKING TO COVID-19, WE REGRET THAT THE 2020 BUTOHOUT! SEASON HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR EVERYONE’S SAFETY AND SANITY. WE HOPE YOU WILL SUPPORT US AS NEXT SEASON.
ButohOUT! 2019 is a festival to celebrate creative communities in Australia and beyond through the profound performance art medium of Butoh. 4 public workshops and 2 weeks performance season are held at Abbotsford Convent.
Evocation of Butoh is a mini festival with the aim of activating artistic and cultural exchange between international artists and local arts communities in Melbourne through the performance art of Butoh.
ButohOUT! is a newly initiated festival activating local communities in Victoria by fostering artistic and cultural exchanges through the powerful performing arts medium Butoh. Butoh is widely known as a Japanese theatre and dance art form but in this festival, artists will integrate it in the context of uniquely Australian culture, history and landscapes.
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.
From the frenetic house of Finucane & Smith - internationally acclaimed Queen of Cabaret Bizarre Moira Finucane and Patrick White Award winner Jackie Smith - the work that has created an international storm of sell out critical acclaim and won 6 Australian theatre awards for its provocative and astonishing images of gender, sexuality, power and desire.
In-compatibility is a powerful new dance performance which creates a unique devotional space that is a synthesis of Asian shamanistic trance-dance, Butoh and contemporary western traditions. This pushes the boundaries of Yap and Umiumare's ongoing investigation into the separate but interdependent natures of yin and yang - of moments compatibility and incompatibility.