ABOUT

Image credit Sasha Kane

Yuiko Masukawa is a Japanese choreographer based in Naarm Australia. Her work brings together the inclusive and iconoclastic ethos of contemporary performance with her expertise of ballet. 

She is a winner of the The Australian Ballet’s Telstra Emerging Choreographer’s Award for my work '3’. A full length performance iteration of ‘3’ will premiere in September 2025. She is also the recipient of the Lucy Guerin Inc’s Naarm/Solo exchange program for 2025/26, which will take place across Indonesia and Australia. Later this year, She will begin development of a new work at The Australian Ballet through the Creative Development program.

Her work seeks to create a context for independent and inclusive approaches to classical dance in Australia through choreography, teaching and international exchange. She has presented work at Arts House for Bleed Festival, at The Australian Ballet for Frame Festival and Bodytorque as well as the Bowery Theatre, Dancehouse, and Lucy Guerin Inc. She is also working to create bridges between Japan and Australia as an interpreter and cultural liaison including for Tokyo Ballet, The Australian Ballet and Terrapin for Asia TOPA.

In 2025, She undertook a choreographic secondment at Trisha Brown Company under choreographer Lee Serle, following 2020 secondments with New York City Ballet and Milwaukee Ballet, supported by the Ian Potter Cultural Trust. Her works have been nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Dance in the 2018 Australian Dance Awards (Artistic director of Melbourne City Youth Ballet) and Design/Technical Achievement in the 2023 Green Room Awards (Running Machine).