Yuri Uchiumi was born in Hokkaido, Japan, and started dancing at the age of five. She attended Elmhurst Ballet School, Surrey, UK in 1990 where she studied for six years and subsequently trained at the Benesh Institute in London, completing the course with Honours with Distinction in 1997. Yuri was invited to join English National Ballet as a Choreologist in January 1998, and was promoted to Repetiteur in 2002. During her tenure at English National Ballet, she worked with a wide range of choreographers and directors on new creations as well as the existing repertoire. 

In 2010, Yuri became a freelance Stager/​Repetiteur/​Choreologist and has since worked with many companies internationally, staging works by Kenneth MacMillan, Rudolph Nureyev, Derek Deane, Mary Skeaping, and Michael Corder. Yuri works all over the world, staging works using Benesh Movement Notation including: MacMillan’s Romeo & Juliet for Tetro San Carlo, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Universal Ballet, and Queensland Ballet, Manon for American Ballet Theater, La Scala and Noriko Kobayashi Ballet Theatre, Mayerling for Stanislavsky Ballet, Rite of Spring and The Sleeping Beauty for English National Ballet and Noriko Kobayashi Ballet Theatre; The Invitation, Winter Dreams, Gloria, and Four Seasons for Noriko Kobayashi Ballet Theatre; Concerto for Sarasota Ballet; Nureyev’s Romeo & Juliet for Paris Opera Ballet; Deane’s The Nutcracker for Teatro san Carlo and Shanghai Ballet; Alice in Wonderland for Pittsburgh Ballet Theater; Swan Lake in-the-round for English National Ballet; Michael Corder’s The Snow Queen for Czech National Ballet; Cinderella for Slovak National Theatre; and Skeaping’s Giselle for Japan Ballet Association. 

In addition, Yuri is on the Benesh Board of Studies and is an External Examiner for Benesh International.