ButohOUT! Festival 2018
’Body~Our Closest Nature’

Body~Our Closest Nature

The focus for the 2018 festival was ‘body-specific’.  Over two months, ButohOUT! delivered public workshops, performances and a forum to explore and discuss what Australian Butoh aesthetics are, by offering a new, challenging and potentially confronting experience for participants and the audience. Through the two months of intensive workshops facilitated by Yumi Umiumare and Tony Yap, we generated new ensemble and solo works with the participants, that were performed at indoor and outdoor venues at Abbotsford Convent.   

Local performers were Tony Yap & Brendon O’Conner along with musician Reuben Lewis, and Yumi Umiumare accompanied by musician Ayako Fujii, as well as Weave Movement Theatre.  Our international guest artists were Agung Gunawan and his Breathing Forest Dance Theatre and Whiffling of the Forest Gamelan Ensemble - fourteen dancers and musicians from East Java, Indonesia.  

The two-week performance season attracted an audience of 540. Over the two month festival 88 individuals participated in the series of workshops.    

Production Team

Artistic Director / Yumi Umiumare
Artistic Advisor / Tony Yap
Co-Producers / Takashi Takiguchi & Yumi Umiumare
Lighting Designer / Bronwyn Pringle
Stage Manager / Adrian Tomas Sneeuw
Lighting Design / Bronwyn Pringle
Lighting Operator / Jason Crick
Sound Technician / Operator/ Aidan Phrase
Graphic Design / Editing: Tony Yap
Forum Facilitators / How Ngean Lim
Front of House Co-ordinator / Kei Murakami
Video documentation / Takeshi Kondo
Photography documentation / Mifumi Obata

Partnership and Support

Abbotsford Convent Foundation
Creative Victoria
City of Yarra
ImPermanence Productions
Multicultural Arts of Victoria
Rainbow Project
Tony Yap Company

Volunteer with many thanks

Adam Forbes
Helen Soemardjo
Holly Huon
Kendra Keller
Mark Reily
Ria Soemardjo
Wendy Smith