Yumiko Yoshioka is a Japanese Butoh dancer and choreographer from Tokyo. Since 1988 she has been based in Germany. Yumiko is a former member of Ariadone, the first female Butoh company, which was founded by Ko Murobushi and Carlotta Ikeda in 1974. In 1978, she performed with Ko and Carolotta in Paris, LE DERNIER EDEN – PORTE DE L’AU-DELA, the very first Butoh performance to be presented in a public theatre outside Japan. In 1988 she met Minako Seki and delta RA’i in Berlin, with whom she founded tatoeba THÉÂTRE DANCE GROTESQUE. This experience, along with work with the Butoh dancer Kim-Itoh, encouraged Yumiko to start to unfold her own personal style of dancing and choreography.

In 1989 she also started to develop and teach her own form of bodywork. The approach became a pillar of her career as a reflection of her profound understanding of the importance of deepening consciousness of the body, not only in order to dance and express, but also to illuminate our daily life, opening ourselves to the deeper layers of our inner world and rediscovering a subtle beauty in each moment. The strength of this perception led her to create her own method of bodywork, called “Body Resonance”

In 1994, she met JoaXhim Manger and Zam Jhonson. Together they founded  TEN PEN CHii ART LABOR, an interdisciplinary and experimental art formation, in which Yumiko dances and emerges as choreographer. Since 1995 she has set up various collaborative projects across Europe. These include: “eX…it!, a Butoh-Related eXchange Festival”, held at Schloss Broellin; Gest-Azione, with Annalisa Maggiani from Italy; and indigo fera art productions with Rena Konstantaki from Greece. Yumiko continues to pioneer Butoh installations and teach her methods internationally.

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philosophy

There is a saying in China: “a hundred (different) flowers are in full bloom.” This understanding of every individual shining in their own unique beauty inspires my work. Butoh is an opportunity to cultivate the seed of care and consciousness that dwells within each of us.

As an artist, I explore the nature of the edges of the world around me. Viewing the present in terms of connection, evolution and coexistence, helps me imagine a bridge to travel between the visible and the invisible. This bridge creates a space for the body to unfold its secrets, to reveal itself through rediscovery of its potential as a receptacle of cosmic time, memory and perspective.

Butoh is the dance of transformation, which allows me to experience the world from a different point of view. Changing perspectives from human to animal to cosmic creates a constant feedback loop between my imagination and my body. As both artist and teacher, I use these perspectives and the layers of body memory to be channels, catalysts, and resonators. Through this dialogue, I learn to be moved by both the inner and outer forces that exist within and around us.

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TEN PEN CHii ART LABOR
1995-2015

In Japanese Ten Pen Chii means “natural catastrophe” ‒ literally, “the sky (ten) changes and the earth (chi) changes”, meaning everything is changing in resonance.

This art-formation was founded in 1995 by Yumiko, together with JoaXhim Manger, a visual artist from Germany, and Zam Johnson, an American composer and performer. The company has produced numerous performances with a unique style, featuring interdisciplinary collaborations using installation, music and body works to investigate the contemporary human being and explore the ways it deals with the consequences of its desires.

One of Yumiko’s most extensive, prolific and distinctive collaborations, TEN PEN CHii ART LABOR remains an on-going life project.

body resonance

I call my dance approach “Body Resonance”
based on Butoh and Organic Movement.

Belonging to a third generation of Butoh artists, Yumiko has developed a personal style of bodywork called Body Resonance, which integrates Butoh practice with features of Noguchi Taiso gymnastics and various other Asian training methods to help prepare the body to receive and transmit dance and inspirations. Body Resonance starts from the idea that the world, including our body and soul, consists of vibrational waves that create constant resonances like echoes. When we tune our body to that frequency, we receive images, feelings and sensations accordingly. For this to happen, we need first to shake off unnecessary tension. In effect, we make a white canvas of our body to paint new colour on it. I teach this as neutralization, encouraging a close-to-zero state, scouring off rust and polishing antenna to catch waves from profound layers of the body. The transformations and concentrations of dancing break up the eggshell of form. They melt down the armour of our ego, allowing resonant memories to emerge from our cells that are floating in the primal liquid of time.

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workshop content

Open to everybody who is interested in rediscovering forgotten passages within the body.

•⁠ ⁠Organic Movement – release exercises inspired by Noguchi Taiso, Tai Chi, and Yoga:
such as hanging body, neutral posture, splash, waves, figure-eight movements, rotations, water-ball exercises, walking with an open heart, and sound–movement exploration combined with Japanese onomatopoeia such as yura yura, fuwa fuwa, kaku kaku, nyoro nyoro, papipupepo.
•⁠ ⁠Breathing Exercises – “AUN”
•⁠ ⁠Dynamic training for the flow of energy, using rebounding power.
•⁠ ⁠Butoh-related work:
sensitization; combining imagery and movement through antenna exercises, such as embodying a hungry animal, a shining insect, a bubble-eating fish, a perverse turtle, a witch and a fairy, yōkai, and creatures within our body; neutral walking ; dialogue with a partner; and resonance with the collective body.
•⁠ ⁠Structured improvisation
•⁠ ⁠Choreography

Workshop in Brussels in Belgium

May 22 to May 24, 2026

contact : quentin  <quentin.chaveriat@gmail.com>

Workshop and the presentation in Firenze , Italy

July 1 – 4 , 2026 

There will be a casual and informal presentation at an ex- medieval church on the last day, July 4th after the workshop.

contact : Camilla <camillagiani79@gmail.com>

Butoh Body Liberation Retreat

July 6 – 11, 2026 

arrival on July 5, departure on July 12

There will be a presentation  on July 11 along the riverside,

invited by a festival “Mithoslogos”

contact : Annalisa <annalisa@gest-azione.de>

North American Tour 

with workshop and performance

Baltimore :

July 19:  “100 Light Years of Solitude”

July 20 – 22 workshop (from 4pm to 7pm )

contact : mr.peter.redgrave@gmail.com (Peter)

Salish Sea Butoh Festival :

July 25- Aug 2

Lined up artists are Mina Nishimura/ Kota Yamazaki, Kei Shirasaka /Moe Yamamoto, Akira Kasai /Tenshi-Kan, Joan Laage, Emiko Agatsuma, Iván Espinosa & Company with Katinka Kleijn

July 31 : improvisation by Yumiko Yoshioka, Sara Zalek (as Kuroko)

Aug 1 and 2, Yumiko’s workshop
https://www.salishseabutoh.com/2026-performances (ticket link)
https://www.instagram.com/salishseabutoh/

contact : salishseabutohfestival@gmail.com

Portland

August 4 – 7 : workshop from 4 pm to 7pm

August 8 : “100 Light Years of Solitude”

contact : Carl Annala snailsnarl@gmail.com

San Francisco

August 14 – 16 workshop

(Fri 6-9pm, Sat 11-3pm, Sun 2-6pm)

contact :butohcontact@gmail.com (Shoshana)

Aug 15:  ” 100 Light Years of Solitude”

contact : tsubushibutoh@gmail.com (Kevin)

Aschville

16th Asheville Butoh Festival

August 21-22,

Yumiko’s workshop

(Fri, 5-9pm, Sat, 1-5pm)

August 22 at 7:30pm performance

by Julie Becton Gillum

August 23 at 7:30pm

“100 Light Years of Solitude”

www.ashevillebutoh.com

Boston

August 28 – 30 workshop

(Fri, 5:30 – 8pm, Sat,10:30-2:30pm, Sun 10-1pm)

August 29 at 7pm,

“100 Light Years of Solitude”

contact : egodena@gmail.com (Ellen)

Montreal

workshop at Studio 303 ,

Sept 1-5, 1 pm – 5pm

artistes@studio303.ca (Caro)

Registration starts from July 1

https://www.studio303.ca/ateliers/

workshop : Sep 8 – 11 in the afternoon

contact : info@fujiwaradance.com (Rosanna)

Barcelona (Ocata) 

Sep  25 / 26

Collaborative workshop,

led by Marlene Jöbstl (Radical Dance Research ) and Yumiko Yoshioka (Body Resonance)

contact : marlenecomp@gmail.com

Mexico Tour

workshop and performance

general information of Mexican tour :

CROMOS DELA NIEBLA <cromosniebla@gmail.com>

Winter Workshop in Berlin

Dec 17 – Dec 20,

from 13:00 to 18:00

 at Eden Studio in Pankow

contact : yumiko-mizelle@gmx.de

2027 

March to April 

Asian Tour in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and China

Singapore

March 3 – 7  Yumiko’s workshop

March 8   a presentation

Thailand (in Bangkok)

March 19 – 21 , workshpop (pending)

Hong Kong

March 26- 28  workshop

China (in Dali and Shanghai)

April 1  – 8

contact : yumiko-yoshioka@gmx.de

April 23- 25

workshop  at Yese Studio, in Mie prefecture in Japan

contact : yese@live.jp (Yuko)

June 18 – 20

workshop in Vienna (Austira)

contact:  office@butoh-danimayu.com (Daniela)

June 18 – 20

workshop in Vienna (Austira)

contact:  office@butoh-danimayu.com (Daniela)

Butoh Lab Camp 

July 15- 24 in Romania

(Near Targ Mures)

Arrival :  July 14,    Departure,  July 25

workshop exchange project

invited teachers :  Yuri Nagaoka, Seisaku (Dance Medium) Maco and Hikaru Inagawa (4RUDE), Stefan Maria Marb, Tashi Iwaoka, Matilde Javier Ciria and Yumiko Yoshioka (as a superviser)

contact:  butohlabcamp@gmail.com

Indian Tour

August

in Auroville, at theater schools in Bhopal and near Mumbai

contact : yumiko-mizelle@gmx.de

South American Tour

October – December

in Argentine, Peru, Chile and Ecuador

contact : yumiko-mizelle@gmx.de

Winter Workshop

Dec 16- 19,

at Eden Studio in Pankow,  Berlin

contact : yumiko-mizelle@gmx.de

Photo Credits: Michael Peters, Maria Fernanda, Fer Zam, Ron Lau, TC Chan, Maximillian Cheng, Ergao Dance Production Group, Sean Teruo, Alain Dacheux , Amana Dultra, Michael Peters, Thilo Nass, Peter Piontek, Ji Yang, Piero Perrazo, Stefano Lanzardo, Chronis Giannopoulos, Giampaolo Becherini, Atocha Crespo,David Jennings, Raúl Bartolomé, Claude Hofer, HIROs Lied