ButohOUT! Festival
ButohOUT! is an annual festival celebrating creative communities and the profound performance art of Butoh. Originally called Dance of Darkness, Butoh was conceived in the late 1950s during the social turmoil of post-war Japan. It goes beyond the confines of specific culture, gender, status and religion, aspiring to a universal expression that describes the true nature of humanity.
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.Through stripping back layers of conditioning, ButohOUT!2020 will explore the essence and source of emotion through colour, utilising metaphorical expressions.
ButohOUT2020 is thrilled to be offering the specialised workshops with acclaimed Japanese Australian Butoh dancer, choreographer and creator of Butoh Cabaret, Yumi Umiumare; and internationally renowned Japanese German Butoh practitioner, Yuko Kaseki. The popular family workshop, Peek-A-Butoh Parade, supported by Convent Kids, will also be a part of our colourful program.
ButohOUT! explores diverse interpretations of Butoh, embracing the power of the unknown while creating platforms for participants to explore their authentic expression. With something for everyone, ButohOUT! extends a warm welcome to all from experienced dancers to newcomers, children and families.
“Color is a power which directly influences the soul” – Wassily Kandinsky
Artistic Director: Yumi Umiumare
Producer: Takashi Takiguchi
Photography: Vikk Shayen
Graphic design Monika Benova
ButohOut! Festival 2020
Peek-A-Butoh Parade Convent Kids Program, 22 February 2020
Essence of Butoh Workshop, Tuesdays from 18 February – 24 March 2020
Creating a Work of Butoh Workshop, Wednesdays from 4 March – 1 April 2020
Diving into Butoh Workshop, 20–22 March 2020
Primal Colour Outdoor Performance, 4–5 April
Learning Butoh in Diverse Perspectives Workshop, 17–19 April 2020
About the Artists
Yumi Umiumare Born in Hyogo, Japan, 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 been creating and teaching her distinctive style of works over the last 20 years and her works have received critical acclaim and garnered her and her collaborators several Australian Green Room awards. Yumi’s works are renowned for provoking visceral emotions, cultural identities with humour and they have been seen in numerous festivals in dance, theatre and film productions throughout Australia, Japan, East and West Europe, New Zealand and South East Asia. Through her diverse skills and unique aesthetics as a choreographer, she has also extensively worked in socially engaged theatre productions with aboriginal communities, culturally diverse communities and ESL groups, women from the sex industry and also people who has recovered from gambling addictions. Yumi is a recipient of the fellowship from Australian Council (2015-16) for her PopUp Tearoom Series, and the recent winner of the Green Room Awards of Geoffrey Milne Memorial Award for her contribution to Contemporary and Experimental Performance.
Takashi Takiguchi Originally from Japan, Takashi is a Melbourne-based dancer and producer who started his career at the age of thirty seven after encountering renowned Butoh performance artist, Yumi Umiumare.Since then, he has performed as a dancer at numerous festivals in Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia and Melbourne. He has been working as a qualified social worker for decades and re-discovered the power of arts as a medium to re-connect to inevitable and fundamental consciousness through artistic practices and activities. This has led him to work with Sampang Agung Centre for Performing Arts (SACPA) in East Java, Indonesia as an operational manager since 2016. He has been working as a crucial role as producer, bringing Japanese Butoh masters to Melbourne, including Seisaku and Yuri Nagaoka (2015) and Kan Katsura (2016). Recently Takashi co-produced performing arts festivals, ‘Pelem Festival’ (2016) in Indonesia, ‘Evocation of Butoh’ (2017) and ‘ButohOUT!’ (2018) in Melbourne. He has been also an artistic and operational collaborator of Melaka Art & Performance (MAP) Festival since 2015.
Yuko Kaseki is director, choreographer, Butoh dancer, performance artist, improviser and teacher, based in Berlin. She started Butoh dance and Performing Art in HBK Braunschweig with Anzu Furukawa and danced in her company Dance Butter Tokio and Verwandlungsamt in 1989-2000. Yuko Kaseki and Marc Ates founded the dance company cokaseki in 1995. She teaches and performs in solo and ensemble pieces and improvisations throughout Europe, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Canada,Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Australia, Russia,Georgia, India, Burkina Faso and the USA. These works are poetic and vivid images that incorporate the spirit of Butoh, performance and live art. Her performance aims to reflect the outsider’s existence. Various International collaborations include inkBoat (SF), Tableau Stations (SF), CAVE (NY), Poema Theatre (Moscow), Salad Theater (Seoul) and more. She is also a key collaborator with mixed ability artists including Theater Thikwa (Berlin).
ButohOUT! 2020 is supported by and in partnership with Abbotsford Convent Foundation, Dancehouse, ImPermanence Productions. Peek-A-Butoh Parade is proudly supported by City of Yarra as part of the Abbotsford Convent’s Convent Kids program.