Yumiko Takeshima

is a Japanese designer and former Principal dancer with Semperoper Ballett, Universal Ballet, the Alberta Ballet Company, Feld Ballet, and the Dutch National Ballet. Born in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Takeshima began dancing at the age of four in Sapporo. At the age of thirteen, she studied at the San Francisco Ballet School in the United States. Takeshima continued to dance throughout the 90s and early 2000s and started designing dancewear and costumes for ballet companies from all over the world.

Takeshima founded the dancewear company YUMIKO and the YumiGirl Network in 2002. Her dancewear was used in Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 award-winning film Black Swan. She was the 2003 and 2005 recipient of the 'Best Female Dancer Award' by Dance Europe Magazine and won a gold medal at the 1996 Serge Lifar International Ballet Competition in Kyiv.

Early life and training Takeshima was born on 5 August 1970 in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan and grew up in Ebetsu, Hokkaido. Her grandfather and parents owned a small kimono shop. She has often cited this as being the beginning of her inspirations for her later work as a designer. At the age of four, she began her ballet training at the Miharu Ishikawa Ballet School. At the age of thirteen, she was accepted into the San Francisco Ballet School. In 1993, she moved to Holland and joined the Dutch National Ballet in 1993.

Takeshima begin sketching designs for leotards and experimenting with various fabrics in her free time as a dancer when she exchanged a toaster for a sewing machine. At the time, other dancers in the company took notice and soon began asking for custom body suits of their own.

As a costume designer, Takeshima has designed for choreographers George Balanchine, David Dawson, Jorma Elo, Krzysztof Pastor, Alexei Ratmansky, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and William Forsythe; for ballet companies such as The Royal Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Boston Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet, and Semperoper Ballett; and her dancewear was featured in the Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 award winning film Black Swan. Takeshima has also performed at numerous galas such as multiple performances at the International Ballet Star Gala at the National Theater and Concert Hall, Taipei. In April 2014, Takeshima retired from dancing.