Performance Making Butoh Workshop Series Feb/Mar 2026

photo by Vikk Shayen (ButohOUT!2025)

★ Performance Making Workshop through Butoh and Beyond ★ 
27(Fri), 28(Sat) Feb, 1 (Sun) March 2026
@Dancehouse, North Carlton

This workshop invites participants to explore a unique laboratory process of performance-making through constructive and deconstructive approaches to Butoh.

Drawing on over 30 years of performance experience, Yumi guides participants through interdisciplinary practices including Butoh, cabaret, abstract theatre, ritual, and spirituality. Through Butoh-based exercises and experimentation, participants are encouraged to explore their own idiosyncratic creative processes and to actualise original inspirations and ideas.

The workshop offers a journey of deep sensing and listening, opening access to unexpected creative sources where anything is possible. It welcomes both experienced practitioners and those new to Butoh who are willing to dive into the creative process. Visualisations, conversations, and adaptable instruction ensure accessibility for all bodies.

The workshop includes:

• Guided warm-up

• Sensory-based Butoh exercises

• Individual, paired, and group creation

• Feedback and creative support

If you would like to join our mailing list to be notified of up coming workshops please sign up here or contact Yumi.

Photo: Takahiro Kitagawa (as a part of Tenri University annual dance 2024)

Photo from ButohOUT!

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The planned activities are outlined below.

 > Day 1 - Friday 27 Feb
 6:00 - 6:15 am - Registration, sign up, introduction
6:15 - 7:30 pm -  Mini lecture about what is Butoh (slides and short video presentation) 
7:30-7:35 - Short break
7:35 - 9pm - Exercise #1: Warm-up, Activating different parts of body through various images

> Day 2 - Saturday 28 Feb
10:00am - 12:00pm -  Exercise #2: Warm-up, conceiving, visualising and exploring your/others ideas 
12:00 - 12:45pm - Lunch break
12:45 - 1:00pm - Questions and Conversation
1:00 - 3:45pm - Exercise #3 : Exploring various styles : what is your favourite/challenging styles and forms?
3: 45 - 4:00pm - Discussion Q and A

> Day 3 - Sunday 1 March
10am - 12pm -  Exercise #4 : Transformation through narrative/abstraction : what is your trans-formation?
12:00 - 12:45pm - Lunch break
12:45 -  1:00pm -Questions and Conversation
1:00 - 3:00pm - Exercise #5 : Make it up!! : Making some shape through visible and invisible aspect. How?
3:00 - 4:00pm - Creation of a short work, discussion, Q and A, feedback &  debrief 

Other workshop in 2026

★ Weekly Workshop - Butoh Training ★ 

10(Tue) Feb - 17 (Tue) March 2026
Every Tuesday 6pm-9pm 
@ St Marys Anglican Church Hall, North Melbourne

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If you would like to join our mailing list to be notified of up coming workshops,

please sign up here or contact Yumi.

Weekly Workshops - Feb/Mar 2026

WORKSHOPS IN 2026

★ Weekly Workshop - Butoh Training ★ 
(Tue)10 Feb 2026 to (Tue) 17 March 2026
Every Tuesday 6pm-9pm 
@ St Marys Anglican Church Hall, North Melbourne

This weekly workshop (6 sessions in total) trains the body through the transformative philosophy of classic and contemporary Butoh. Melbourne-based Butoh punkess Yumi Umiumare leads physical and imaginal practices that shake the body awake, activate space, disrupt habitual thinking, and push imagery across physical and metaphysical territories.

Originally known as the “Dance of Darkness,” Butoh is layered, contradictory, and unruly. The body becomes a site of transformation, between the known and the unknown, the real and the unreal, the visible and the invisible. We are playfully venturing into realms of disturbance, the grotesque, beauty, and darkness.

Enter the mysterious, unsettling, and strangely liberating world of Butoh!
No experience needed. Beginners welcome.

$35/ per class for drop in
$180 for 6 sessions 

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If you would like to join our mailing list to be notified of up coming workshops
please sign up here or contact Yumi.

Photo: Takahiro Kitagawa (as a part of Tenri University annual dance 2024)

Photo: Vikk Shayen (as a part of ButohOUT! 2025)

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Up Coming Workshop

★ Performance Making Workshop ★
(Fri) 27, (Sat) 28 Feb, (Sun) 1 March 2026
@ Dancehouse, North Carlton 

If you would like to join our mailing list to be notified of up coming workshops please sign up here or contact Yumi.