Experimental Series #3 by Yumi Umiumare
舞踏の森・Forest of Butoh 33
Project Room
Exhibition dates. 30 June - 12 July 2026
Opening reception : Wed 1 July 2026, 6:00 - 8:30 pm
A living archive of 33 years of Butoh, transformation, migration and artistic mischief.
Forest of Butoh 33 is an immersive installation of archival video works, costumes and new durational performances drawn from Yumi Umiumare’s extensive practice since migrating from Japan to Australia in 1993. Accompanied by artist talks, live events and guest lectures on Butoh, the exhibition offers a rare insight into over three decades of artistic experimentation, transformation and cultural exchange.
Over the past 33 years, Yumi has explored the Japanese avant-garde art form Butoh, originally known as Ankoku Butoh, or the Dance of Darkness. After training in classical ballet, she encountered Butoh in the 1970s and was drawn to its radical possibilities during the mid-1980s. Arriving in Australia in 1993, and describing herself as a "mental refugee" from Japan, Yumi embarked on a lifelong journey of artistic experimentation, creating an extraordinary body of performance works and collaborations with artists, communities and non-artists alike.
Today, Yumi continues to spread the "Butoh bug" across Australia and internationally, fostering connections within a vibrant global Butoh community. One of Australia's leading Butoh practitioners, she is renowned for a distinctive ‘punk’ performance language that fuses Butoh, cabaret, ritual and Japanese tea ceremony traditions with raw physicality and irreverent humour.
Photo and video by Brett Walker
Butoh Performances
Solo performances by Yumi Umiumare
Thursday 2 July, 7:00 pm
Thursday 9 July, 7:00 pm
Bookings: LINK
Artist Talk & Mini Lecture
“What is Butoh?”
Tuesday 7 July, 7:00 pm
Bookings: LINK
Featuring special international guest Rosemary Candelario (scholar-artist, Butoh dancer from USA) in conversation with Yumi Umiumare.
Durational Works: Free Event
Yumi will activate the space through a series of durational performance experiments.
Drop in anytime between 1:00–5:00 pm
Friday 3 July
Saturday 4 July
Sunday 5 July
Friday 10 July
Saturday 11 July
Sunday 12 July
YUMI UMIUMARE
Yumi is a Japanese-born, multi-award-winning performance maker and creator of Butoh Cabaret, integrating ritual practices including the Japanese tea ceremony. Over 30 years, she has developed a distinctive style blending narrative, abstraction, ritual, and humour, exploring cultural identity across traditional and contemporary life. She has received an Australia Council Fellowship, serves as Artistic Director of ButohOUT! since 2017, and her works have been presented internationally across Australia, Japan, Europe, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, South America, and the US. Yumi’s socially engaged practice includes work with First Nations and refugee communities. She is a leading figure in global Butoh and a recipient of multiple Green Room Awards and the Melbourne Fringe Living Legend Award.
www.yumi.com.au