Korean dance legends bring their signature works back in 'Living Legacy'
Works by master choreographers who have shaped the course of Korean dance are set to round off the year at the National Theater of Korea’s Haeorum Theater.
Opening next month, the “Living Legacy” program reunites signature performances by four former artistic directors of the National Dance Company of Korea: Cho Heung-dong, 84; Bae Jung-hye, 81; Kim Hyun-ja, 78 and Guk Su-ho, 77.
“This project connects the history of these four masters from the past to the present,” said Lee Seung-yeon. Lee, born in 2002, is the youngest member of the company and performs in Guk’s “Tibetan Sky.”
The program is presented in a double-bill format, pairing two works per evening. Bae’s “Soul, Sunflower” will be staged alongside Guk’s “Tibetan Sky” Dec. 17-18, while Kim’s “Looking at the Plum Blossom” and Cho’s “The Gallant” follow Dec. 20-21.
Bae served as chief choreographer and general director for the 2005 APEC Summit in Busan. Her work “Sol, Sunflower” was the first original piece from the National Dance Company to tour abroad.
The piece interprets the sorrow and longing of a mother mourning her son through a contemporary salpuri, a traditional Korean dance of purification and release. Its bold fusion of traditional dance with jazz music drew early acclaim. After premiering in Korea in 2006, it sold out performances in Germany in 2010, and in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2011.
Guk, the National Dance Company’s first male dancer, directed choreography for the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup. His 1998 work “Tibetan Sky” reflects a desire to overcome the hardships of its time. At a rehearsal open to the press, dancers shouted like warriors charging into battle, while pairs of dancers folded into one another like a single bird, creating sweeping gestures of freedom.
The choreographer said the piece was born during the IMF crisis, when the company was too financially strained to invite any choreographers or performers. “In a moment of national crisis, I wanted to search for a form of dance that could become nourishment for the spirit,” Guk recalled. “Through the Eastern idea of reincarnation, I sought to rediscover the value of life and spiritual heritage.”
Kim, a former professor at the Korea National University of Arts who has collaborated with global artists including Nam June Paik, presents “Looking at the Plum Blossom,” a work in which female dancers move with petal-like delicacy. Their steps seem to glide as if brushing the strings of a gayageum. Kim described the piece as “a poem written through the body.”
Cho, a state-recognized bearer of Korea’s traditional dance heritage, presents the program’s only new work, “The Gallant.” The choreography emphasizes firm, grounding and strong, linear movements that evoke the upright bearing of a classical scholar. Cho will appear onstage alongside the company’s dancers.
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