Takeshima Yumiko

Biography:
Born in Asahikawa, Japan to parents who owned a small Kimono business, Takeshima began dancing at the age of four in Sapporo, Japan. At the age of 14 she left home to study with the San Francisco Ballet school, soon after receiving her first professional dance contract.

In 1993, Yumiko Takeshima move from New York City to join the Dutch National Ballet, where she continued to develop her passion for designing dancewear and costumes. In early 2002 she launched YUMIKO dancewear and the YumiGirl Network.

Since 2002, Takeshima has continued to develop her made-to-order line, as well as a ready-to-wear line, of high quality, great fitting, and beautifully designed dance and fitness wear for women and men. In addition, since moving to Amsterdam, Netherlands, Takeshima has designed costumes for numerous choreographers, most notably David Dawson and William Forsythe and has been praised in the press not only as a dancer, but also for designing some of the most elegant, simple, and esthetically beautiful dance costumes in the European dance world.

Yumiko Takeshima is currently a principle dancer with Dresden’s SemperOper Ballett in Germany and continues to devote much of her time to her YUMIKO business and her costume design projects.

from Yumiko website