Yukiko Masui is a dancer and choreographer trained in Hip Hop & Latin dance. In 2008, she moved to London to study contemporary dance and joined Transitions Dance Company at Trinity Laban.
Alongside her performing career, she has realised her own creative voice and challenges “the norm” through her choreographic work. Her debut solo Unbox (2016) interrogates our tendency to categorise people and represents the journey she took in breaking away from that through movement. Yukiko is passionate about bringing different dance forms together, creating unique movement vocabularies and expressing untold stories.
Other choreography credits: Norrdans, Impact Dance, The Place, LSCD, DanceXchange, NSCD, Ballet Boyz(R&D), Norrlands Opera amongst others.
She is a recipient of the DanceXchange Choreography Award (2017) and the Choreodrome artist residency at The Place (2018 & 20).
Yukiko has recently joined forces with SarahGolding to form SAY collective. They are currently collaborating with musicians to create an album in physical form.
What are you most excited about joining the new group of Work Place artists?
I am looking forward to exploring and developing my work alongside Work Place artists to exchange ideas and experiences for the next 5 years. As an independent artist, you often feel alone going from project to project. For this reason, I am excited to have a place and people to return to and build an inspiring peer support network.
Where do you seek or find inspiration for your work?
My inspiration comes from the questions that I have for our current society. I research and process those questions through dance, which is where I feel most comfortable. As part of the ideation process, it’s important for me to see and experience other art forms. Music is one of my biggest inspirations, especially when it moves you both physically and emotionally.
What does it mean for you to be an artist in this day and age?
With all that’s happening globally, I would really like to focus on joy of being an artist. Music helped me and gave me huge support during the lockdown. I want to create dance pieces that celebrate the joy of music and dance. As an artist and a long-standing member of Equity Dance Committee, I believe that it is my responsibility to look after other professionals within the industry and promote equity and anti-exclusionary practises.