ABOUT

Image credit Sasha Kane

Yuiko Masukawa is a Japanese choreographer based in Naarm. Her work brings together the inclusive and iconoclastic ethos of contemporary performance with her deep expertise of ballet. She is a current recipient of the The Australian Ballet’s Telstra Emerging Choreographer’s Award for her work 3. 

After education in Japan, America and Canada, she moved to Australia and studied at West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) before launching a professional career as a dancer and choreographer.

She was a principal artist with Melbourne City Ballet for 2014-2019, touring across Australia, New Zealand and Japan performing principal roles for more than 15 seasons. As a choreographer with MCB, she created works for each contemporary season as well as more than 10 full-length ballets for Melbourne City Youth Ballet in her role as artistic director. Her work was nominated for outstanding achievement in youth dance at the 2018 Australian Dance Awards.

In 2020, she undertook choreographic secondments with New York City Ballet and Milwaukee Ballet, supported by the Ian Potter Cultural Trust. 

In 2022, she presented Running Machine (Nominated Design/Technical Achievement in the 2023 Green Room Awards) an international, interdisciplinary work at Arts House between Japan and Australia and, why we are, who we are in collaboration with T.Shriraam and undertook a choreographic secondment with Lucy Guerin.  In 2023, She presented the first development of her work Yugen at Australian Ballet as a part of Frame Festival.

In 2024, Yuiko created a full-length work for the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). She is the recipient of the Naarm/Solo exchange program for 2025/2026, which will take place in both Indonesia and Australia. This program is facilitated by Lucy Guerin Inc. and EkosDance Company. She presented her new work Standing on a Rising Wave at The Australian Ballet’s Bodytorque season in Nov 2024.

She is grateful to be a recipient of support from Creative Victoria, Creative Australia, City of Melbourne, Ian Potter Foundation, Lucy Guerin Inc. (Make a start residency), Dancehouse (On Residence), Brimbank Council (Be bold residency) and the Sidney Myer Foundation.

She is also a passionate ballet teacher and has been teaching ballet at The Australian Ballet, Lucy Guerin Inc, The National Ballet School, Victorian College of Arts, Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, Transit Dance and has ongoing connections with companies and festivals in Japan, including Kinosaki Arts Centre and Tokyo Ballet.