Buried TeaBowl- OKUNI: Ready for Tour!
Buried TeaBowl -OKUNI is an intimate and epic solo performance installation bringing together dance, text, song and tea ceremony. The work was premiered in May 2022 with sold out season and now ready for touring around the globe!
“...the traditional Japanese tea ceremony a 21st century feminist spin. ... a Proustian, unruly one woman show, a work of pleasure and bite.”
“…so strange and grotesque, it almost defies description”
“dense and visceral at the same time.”
INSTALLATION - PERFORMANCE - TEA
ABOUT
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 shrine made Okuni, who initiated Kabuki theatre in the early 1600s, which women were banned from performing after these times.
At the height of her powers, Yumi Umiumare, Melbourne performance legend and Australia’s leading Butoh artist, unearths precious sacred female power which has been buried throughout history.Yumi channels the multifaceted character of Okuni who was so powerful, yet fragile and complex, to reawaken her spirit through excavating these buried stories and myths.
CREATIVE TEAM
Created and Performed : Yumi Umiumare
Cinematographer/ Editor : Takeshi Kondo
Composer/ Sound Designer : Dan West
Lighting designer: Emma Lockhart-Wilson
Dramaturg/ Maude Davey
Provocateur : Moira Finucane
Producer : Kath Papas productions
Photographer: Vikk Shayen
Graphic design : Mariko Naito & Taka Takiguchi
Calligraphy: Hisako Tsuchiya
Publicity : Diana Wolfe
PHOTO CREDITS
Vikk Shayen (Above)
Takeshi Kondo (Below)
The show was premiered at the BlackCat Gallery in May 2022.
SUPPORT & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS for the premiere season
The premiere season was supported by the Besen Family Foundation and BLACKCAT Gallery.
IN-VOCATION たまおこし Performance in FRAME: biennial dance festival
21(Tue) and 28(Tue) March 2023
3 shows ONLY 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.
When: 21 (Tue) March 7pm and 28(Tue) March 7pm and 9pm ( 3 shows ONLY )
Where: Dancehouse 150 Princes St Carlton North, Victoria
BOOKING
Entangling old world Kabuki mystique with volumetric 3D video, “IN-VOCATION たまおこし” summons the sacred power of female archetypes and deities.
In collaboration with a clairvoyant from Japan, local artists, and an international guest performer, Yumi Umiumare opens a Jujutsu 呪術 (Magic) portal to discover the colourful characters of OKUNI — an initiator of Kabuki Japanese theatre.
Evolving out of Yumi’s solo work, “Buried TeaBowl – OKUNI”, the team of mystics return to prod their collective memories and discover the many essences of the divine feminine.
Punk, playful, and exuberant, this is an intimately epic and profanely sacred ritual that incites an audience revolt of the spirit.
CREDIT
Choreographer: Yumi Umiumare
Performers: Yumi Umiumare, Kayo Tamura (Theatre Group Gumbo, Osaka), Kyoko Amara (Taiyosha, Iwate)
Visual Artist: Jacqui Stockdale
Sound Designer: Ai Yamamoto
3D Video: EMD Studio, Centre for Transformative Media Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology.
Original score from “Buried TeaBowl – Okuni”: Dan West
Original video from “Buried TeaBowl – Okuni”: Takeshi Kondo
Image credits: “IN-VOCATION たまおこし” (2023), Yumi Umiumare. Photo by Vikk Shayen.
Buried TeaBowl- OKUNI
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.
INSTALLATION - PERFORMANCE - TEA
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.
At the height of her powers, Yumi Umiumare, Melbourne performance legend and Australia’s leading Butoh artist, unearths precious sacred female power which has been buried throughout history.Yumi channels the multifaceted character of Okuni who was so powerful, yet fragile and complex, to reawaken her spirit through excavating these buried stories and myths.
CREATIVE TEAM
Created and Performed : Yumi Umiumare
Cinematographer/ Editor : Takeshi Kondo
Composer/ Sound Designer : Dan West
Lighting designer: Emma Lockhart-Wilson
Dramaturg/ Maude Davey
Provocateur : Moira Finucane
Producer : Kath Papas productions
Photographer: Vikk Shayen
Graphic design : Mariko Naito
Calligraphy: Hisako Tsuchiya
Publicity : Diana Wolfe
The show was premiered at the BlackCat Gallery in May 2022.
Date/Time:
Thu 5 May 8:30pm – Preview
Fri 6 May 8pm – Opening
Sat 7 May 8pm
Sun 8 May 6pm
Wed 11 May 8pm
Thu 12 May 8pm
Fri 13 May 8pm
Sat 14 May 8pm
Sun 15 May 6pm
Duration: 80 mins
Tickets:
Full: $35 / Con: $25
Superiori-TEA: $50 incl. drink on arrival
Address:
BlackCat Gallery
420 Brunswick St
Fitzroy 3065
Vic Australia
PHOTO CREDITS
Vikk Shayen (Above)
Takeshi Kondo (Below)
SUPPORT & AKCNOWLEDGEMENTS
This season is supported by the Besen Family Foundation and BLACKCAT Gallery.
Jujutsu 呪術 Project
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.
Photo by Mathew Lynn, Vikk Shayen, Jodie Hutchinson | Graphic Design by Takashi Takiguchi
Jujutsu Project is a research Project, exploring Jujutsu
（呪術)
the Japanese notion of shamanism.
On-going research project about Jujutsu呪術: Japanese notion of Shamanism. Since 2021, Yumi has worked 5 specialists and 3 artists, including a first nations artist, scientists, veterinarian/animal communicator, clairvoyant, celebrant and artists from diverse backgrounds in Australia, Japan, Denmark and USA. Now it is in the process of making creative laboratory, which would be creating as a new performance work.
Yumi states;
“This project was inspired by Taro Okamoto's words, "Art is JuJutsu呪術 (magic)!” Having lived and practiced as an artist for more than 30 years, these famous word came to my awareness again because of the desire to recapture that "magical power" as the basis of art. During COVID-19, we frequently face ‘invisible’ fears and anxieties, this leads to the urgent question for artists ‘how should we act?’ Instead, how can we dance with the ‘invisible’ positive power of Jujutsu, through the analogy of our senses, ritual, quantum physics and inexplicable phenomena. I believe that making full use of our five senses and training our six senses, would be a one of the processes of reviving art with the magical power of Jujutsu”.
The interviews and collaboration were taken place via online and live meetings, explored the notion of ‘magic’ ‘spontaneity’ ‘inexplicable’ ‘invisible’ and connections between arts and Jujutsu. Yumi has also participated the online residency between Denmark-US-Australia, in BIRACA, Denmark.
The activities were funded by Creative Victoria, Creators Fund.
Summary Of Research Works
The summary of her research works were as below:
-
Aug 2021
-
March-May 2022
Working with Adrian Pearce, professor/ scientist(Melbourne) and PhD students in Melbourne university
Working with Shia Tsuchiya, animal communicator/veterinarian(USA)
Working with Hideki Hamada, Jujutsu expertise/psychotherapist, (Japan)
-
Dec 2021- March 2022
Working with Caroline Higgins, celebrant(Melbourne)
Working with Kyoko Amara, clairvoyant/singer/ healer (Japan)
-
July 2022- Oct 2022
Yumi has worked with the 3 established art practitioners of their expertise, Dalisa Pigram(Broome), Tony Yap (Melbourne), and Moira Finucane (Melbourne).
-
Nov/Dec 2022
Yumi has collected 99 creative material and conducted ‘Show and tell “of those 99 materials and create a final ‘ceremony’ as 100th material of dancing, at Sol Gallery, Melbourne.
Yumi states;
“My aim of this research project was to refresh and re-inspire my creative practice through diverse perspectives; science, spirituality, rituals and other no-arts practices as well as to find actual creative methods.Through the research of the Jujutsu (translated as Magic) I was able to recapture these "magical powers" as the basis of art and started to understand some ways of finding a creative portal through arts practice.
It was extremely rich and fulfilling process for me to work with various spiritual expertises, scientists and artists, as well as to interview people in Broome, where Japanese aboriginal cultures meets. Sharing the topics about ‘magic’ and ‘invisible’ power were incredible inspiring and nurturing process for me both personally and professionally. My objective for this research was to take me into the new and unknown territories in order for me to extend my creativity in arts, spirituality and well-being all all kinds of levels. It was very satisfying process for me to fulfil my objectives and share the processes with participated artists and practitioners, exchanging our expertise and insights, especially after having long restrictions through COVID.
I was also able to share my conversations and processes with arts and non-arts communities. I’ve interviewed over 20 people from non-arts background, and conducted 3 public Zoom sessions with 3 Japanese experts, which attracted over 80 people from Japan, Australia and other countries.
As I planned, I’ve held a public show and tell of showing the 99 creative materials, and one live performance to complete the process of the 100 Supernatural Tales. It was at Sol Gallery in 16 Dec 2022.
The creative materials of spontaneous, inexplicable, invisible and art, involving stories, visual, movements were;
• 12 self edited video works( including 5 dance video)
• 5 interview excerpts videos
• 20 stories
• 10 sounds
• 10 artefacts
• 42 visual photos and poetry
• 1 final dance
The Past Session DATES/times with Specialists
2022
★SUN 30th Jan @11:00am-1:00 pm (GMT+11)
Series #3 Kyoko Amara : Chaneller/Singer
★June - Completed (without Open Zoom sessions)
Series #4 Caroline Higgins: Celebrant
★Oct- Completed (Internal Zoom sessions only)
Series #5 Melbourne university science students
2021
★Sun 5th Dec @10:30am-12pm (GMT+11)
Series #1:Shia Tsuchiya: Animal communicator
★SUN 19th Dec @10:30am-12pm (GMT+11)
Seires #2 HIDEKI Hamada: Jujutsu Specialist
BOOKING
Please book via TRY BOOKING Link
Japanese Specialists’ Profiles
Shia Tsuchiya- Animal Communicator (SEDONA, USA)
Born in Nagano, Japan, Shia currently lives in Sedna, after working in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Shia has been a veterinary specialist with more than 15 years of experience working in veterinary clinics in Japan and the United States. Taking advantage of the spiritual abilities since her childhood, Shia started to follow her teacher, Penelope Smith, a pioneer of animal communicators. Shia works also as a healer to support people not limited to animals, and lead them a better life through receiving energy from higher dimensions. Since 2010, she has been fascinated by the sacred place Sedna then moved there in 2014.In recent years, she has been qualified to manage pilgrimages to sacred places and ceremonies, especially from Native American organisations, and has also conducted hiking and ceremonies for healing and regeneration of people's bodies, spirits and souls.Currently Shia advocates ‘terra spiritualism’ that integrates a wide range of spirituals such as channeling, somatic, and coaching based on shamanism. She also educate and foster people for their healing, integration, and regeneration of their bodies, minds, and spirits, as well as their skills.
Hideki Hamada - Jujutsu Specialist (OSAKA, JAPAN)
Born in Osaka in 1965, Hideki is a expertise of Jujutsu and shamanism in general. His shamanic qualities are found by Carol Proudfoot Edgar, a Native American Lakota Sioux medicine woman. In 1995, he went to the United States to study Native American mindset and formal ceremonies under Ms. Edgar. He is the only member of the Japanese Council of "Shamanic Circles", an organisation that supports the activities of shamanism around the world. He is also a psychotherapist and representative of Eagle Tribe to conduct workshops and training programs to be psychotherapist. Hideki works to make psychology useful in daily life, for participants to develop their effective interpersonal assistance skills.
Kyoko Amara
Kyoko likes the smell of the soul. Over 20 years, she has been working as a singer with shamanistic drumming and she describes ‘hearing as the voice suddenly began to come down’. Kyoko is also a ‘channeller’/clairvoyant in Japan, holding sessions with over 9000 people. Her main work is to spiritually convey the roots of people’s souls. She has been also engaged in art and shamanistic activities through Butoh performance, painting female genitals, holding workshops for feminine liberation and holding a power animal ceremony, which is a secret practice of the Native American people. In 2017, Kyoko moved from Tokyo to the foot of Mt. Hayachine in Iwate Prefecture, organising all kinds of events while renovating an 100-year-old folk house under the name of "Ihatov Mountain and Water Sunshade”.
Kyoko is renewing her website so her FB page is here.
This project is supported by Creative Victoria, Creators Fund 2021.
Buried TeaBowl a new solo work in progress 2021
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.
photo by Vikk Shayen
Yumi's new solo work Buried TeaBowl, a work in progress, Aug 2021
Buried Tea Bowl is a new solo interdisciplinary work in development by Yumi Umiumare, bringing together dance, text, song and poetry with tea ceremony to create an intimate and epic work with both live and digital iterations.
Buried Tea Bowl channels the character of Okuni, a Japanese female shaman who initiated Kabuki during the Edo period (1600s). Kabuki comes from the word ‘Kabuku’, meaning bent or out of the ordinary, and was regarded as a subversive non-art form, passionately expressing ugliness and beauty. Later women were banned from performing Kabuki – the male performers who took over the art form can be seen as the first Japanese Drag Queens. Even though she was one of the most powerful female figures in theatre history, not many people know about Okuni, even in Japan.
Combining Yumi’s practice of Japanese tea ceremony, which flourished at the same period as Okuni was alive, she is choosing the ‘tea bowl’ as a creative metaphor of precious sacred female power which was buried under history.
Creative Team for Creative Development 2021
Created and Performed by Yumi Umiumare
In collaboration with
Cinematographer/ Editor : Takeshi Kondo
Composer/ Sound Designer : Dan West
Dramaturg : Maude Davey
Provocateur : Moira Finucane
Vocal Artist : Emma Bathgate
Shamisen Artist : Noriko Tadano
Photographer : Vikk Shayen
Producer : Kath Papas productions
This project has been assisted by
The Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body
City of Darebin, Cultural Infrastructure Grants
Abbotsford Convent Foundation, Pivot 2021
ButohOUT! 2021 New Ab/Normal 2 Feb- 23 May 2021
BUTOH OUT! 2021NEW AB/NORMAL 新しい異常
2 Feb - 23 May 2021
The 5th iteration of ButohOUT!, a collection of events inspired by the dance theatre art-form of Butoh, explores the artistic theme New Ab/Normal during the post-pandemic era with the question: what is normal?
BUTOH OUT! 2021
NEW AB/NORMAL 新しい異常
2 Feb - 23 May 2021
The 5th iteration of ButohOUT!, a collection of events inspired by the dance theatre artform of Butoh, explores the artistic theme New Ab/Normal during the post-pandemic era with the question: what is normal? Originally called Dance of Darkness, Butoh has always been associated with the marginalised, embracing the abnormal, odd, quirky & the deviant. One of the first Butoh performances so shocked its Japanese audiences that it was forced to go underground, yet now it is accepted as an innovative art form. Conversely, what we used to think as ‘normal’ is no longer so. Instead, the term, 'new normal' exists, which contains the paradoxical nuance that an abnormality can become ‘normal’. We hang onto a semblance of normalcy like a security blanket - but why?
ButohOUT! 2021 offers 5 public workshops including one for children and seniors, a performance-making laboratory, a forum and 2 performance presentations, one at Dancehouse and Abbotsford Convent.
WORKSHOPS
@ Abbotsford Convent
★2(Tue)-23(Tue) Feb 2021
Weekly workshop
Is Butoh Abnormal?
★19(Fri)-21(Sun) March 2021
Weekend workshop
What is normal in Butoh?
★27(Sat) March 2021
Family and Kids workshop
Peek-A- Butoh
(FREE)
★27(Sat) March 2021
Senior workshop
You Don't Think You Can Dance?
| For 50+, 60+, 70+ or beyond
(FREE)
★ 24(Sat) 25 (Sun) April 2021
Weekend workshop with Butoh, Voice and Visual Arts
What is our New Ab/Normal?
PERFORMANCE
★25-28 March 2021
Colour-Fool (4 shows only!!)
@Dancehouse
Detail
★20-23 May 2021
Odd Hours (4 shows only!!)
@Abbortsford Convent
Detail
About
ButohOUT! Festival is An Artists-led, inclusive festival that breaks expectations and boundaries. It invites diverse arts and non-arts communities to engage with the profound internationally-acclaimed art form of Butoh. ButohOUT! also engages with international Butoh dancers to interact with local Australian practitioners from new initiates to established performers in an open exchange of expertise and performance.
Creative team of ButohOUT! 2021
Director & Choreographer: Yumi Umiumare
Producer: Takashi Takiguchi
Emma Bathgate(Voice)
Jacqui Stockdale(Visual arts)
Dan West and Ai Yamamoto (Sound)
Rachel Lee(Lighting)
Monika Benova(Graphic Design)
Performers:
Kiki Ando, Emma Bathgate, David Blom, Jessie Ngaio, Pauline Sherlock, Tomoko Yamasaki, Takashi Takiguchi, Yumi Umiumare and ButohOUT! Ensemble
DasSHOKU TeaParTEA! In Development
DasSHOKU TeaParTEA! will be 5th DasSHOKU Butoh cabaret series since 2012. Smashing together Yumi’s recent practice in Japanese tea ceremony (PopUp Tearoom Series) with her signature, iconic Butoh Cabaret series, DasSHOKU Tea ParTEA! combines elements of Butoh, Cabaret, and spoken word, woven from Japanese tea ceremony into English tea party, from Brazilian samba into Okuni-Kabuki dance during the Edo period in early 1600.
DasSHOKU TeaParTEA! will be Yumi’s new full-length stage work. Smashing together Yumi’s recent practice in Japanese tea ceremony (PopUp Tearoom Series) with her signature, iconic Butoh Cabaret series, DasSHOKU Tea ParTEA! combines elements of Butoh, Cabaret, and spoken word, woven from Japanese tea ceremony into English tea party, from Brazilian samba into Okuni-Kabuki dance during the Edo period in early1600. The work channels the original world of Kabuki, which originally meant ‘bent’ or ‘out of the ordinary’, as well as irregular and asymmetrical aesthetics of classic Japanese tea ceremony.
The first stage of creative development was completed in June 2019, and the second stage development was in Jan/Feb 2020.
The work will take place in a richly visual world created by The Sisters Hayes (set & costume) and Jenny Hector (lighting), with sound design and original score by Dan West. Yumi’s magnetic physical performance is accompanied by an outstanding team of performers- Willow J Conway (Ms Burlesque 2016/17), Gregory Lorenzutti (Brazilian samba & contemporary) and Harrison Hall (cutting edge contemporary dancer). Dramaturgy is by leading theatre maker and performer, Maude Davey.
DasSHOKU Tea ParTEA! will be realised as a 75min tea ceremony/party, including actual Japanese tea ceremony with audience interaction. Short segment of varying rituals with dance, text, and song will unfold through the visually morphing set designs.
CREATIVE TEAM
Creator/director/performer: Yumi Umiumare
Co-creator/performers:
Willow J Conway, Gregory Lorenzutti, Harrison Hall,
Dramaturg: Maude Davey
Set and Costume Design: The Sisters Hayes
Lighting Design : Jenny Hector
Sound design : Dan West
Producer: Kath Papas Productions
See more Dance Work
Tea Break
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.
TEA BREAK is going to be a Yumi's new full-length work, combining dance, spoken words and multimedia. Blending Butoh, Tea and visual theatre, Yumi explores the space between rituals and daily routines of drinking tea. She shifts into the abstract and experiments with the forms and structures of tea ceremony, moving from the sedate to the dramatic, real to surreal, and playful to macabre, a journey into life and death, evoking the spirit of Butoh.
TeaBreak, 30 min solo dance version, was shown in March 2017, as a part of Evocation of Butoh in Asia TOPA, and creative next development for visual elements will be in 2018.
To find out more about showing this work, get in touch with yumi.
Feedback quotes from
the creative development
“Grounded and surreal, totally unpredictable, with some extraordinary physicality in the movements. I loved the humour and the tension and the danger and the energy and how the piece was so utterly unpredictable. A real pleasure and inspiration”
“Cup cracks, composure crumbles in a brush stroke of sickly green”
“Witnessing Yumi's ongoing tea ceremony developments was wonderful, challenging, dangerous and exciting. …Enjoyed the subversion of the formal ceremony and the domestic connotations; and how the transformations reconnected to the elemental, natural, spiritual and physical.“
Pop-up Tearoom Series
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.