Choreographer and multidisciplinary artist Hiroaki Umeda has been a leading figure in Japan’s avant-garde arts scene over the last two decades.
Since the launch of his company S20, his subtle yet visceral dance theater works have toured worldwide to audience and critical acclaim. Dancing within a gorgeous digital stage environment, Umeda choreographs optical, tonal, sensorial, and spatiotemporal elements. Driven by his profound interest in time and space, Umeda’s singular artistic vision also includes composing, lighting design, scenography, and visual art. Umeda is part of our Next50 series, which looks to the future of the performing arts, because of his compelling vision and commitment to reinvention.
UMass is the first of just five stops on Umeda’s 2026 U.S. tour. His program includes two brand new works, Moving State 1, which will be performed by dancers from Umeda’s Somatic Field Project; and assimilating, Umeda’s solo performance. Both pieces explore behavioral design and the “attitudes” of things in motion within a dance aesthetic where refined physicality merges with cyberart.
Hiroaki Umeda is part of the Fine Arts Center's Asian and Asian American Arts and Culture Program and Next50 series.