K-Dance 2024: Kontemporary Korea – a double bill of K-Dance

Kontemporary Korea is a double bill of contrasting works, introducing one of Korea’s leading choreographers Cheol-in Jeong who creates virtuosic and emotive works as Melancholy Dance Company, and audience favourite Sung Im Her, offering her high energy and engaging personality to another edition of A Festival of Korean Dance.

TomorrowIsNowTodayIsYesterday (TinTiY)

Sung Im Her’sTiNTiY looks at the impact of (social) media on society as it focuses on oversharing, over-saturation and the bombardment of information, reflecting the physiological effects of this on the physical body. The work plays with the fun aspects of challenges, memes, skits and all manner of ‘entertaining content’ that is shared on these platforms, but counters this with the realities behind the facade. These darker undertones include an unending multitude of opinions, alternative truths and conspiracy theories, which create confusion, anxiety and perpetuate the unease and precarity faced in society.

Performed on a stage, where the starkness of its raw form is highlighted with only designed lighting and club like sounds composed by musical duo Husk Husk filling the space, three dancers perform overly produced gestures, as they move between their independent selves, into a shared entanglement and back again, blurring the lines of their individual and collective identities.

About Sung Im Her

Born in South Korea, Sung Im Her obtained a master’s degree in contemporary dance at Hansung University. She also studied in Belgium at P.A.R.T.S., the acclaimed contemporary dance school led by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.

As a performer she has worked in with companies in Korea and Belgium including, Ji-Gu Dance Theater, Les ballets C de la B, Needcompany, Abattoir Fermé, Opéra de Lille and more.

As a choreographer, Sung Im has been selected for development programmes Testbeds Catalyst, Aerowaves 21, Choreodrome at The Place. She has been commissioned by Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Counterpoint Arts and Korean Arts Council, and supported by Arts Council England, Seoul Foundation of Arts and Culture, Horizon Showcase and more.

Cast and Creatives

Choreographer and Performer: Sung Im Her
Performers: Martha Passakopoulou and Seo Jun Lee
Lighting Design: Young-UK Lee
Costume Design: Sung Yeol Lim
Composers: Husk Husk

Co-Commissioned by Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF) (KR) & The Place (UK). Additional support from FABRIC (UK), New Italian Dance Platform (IT), Duncan Center (Greece) Horizon Performance Created in England (UK), S’ala (IT), Zeit (IT).

Flight

Flight aims to express the human desire to soar towards goals through leaps and falls. This virtuosic duet portrays the process of overcoming the limits of human capability, which one cannot conquer alone, through a complete flight shared by two individuals.

About Melancholy Dance Company

Melancholy Dance Company, founded in 2016 by choreographer Cheol-in Jeong, sees the world we live in itself as art and creates works that various audiences can sympathise with. With the theme of human life such as Flight, 0g and Übermensch, Mobility their work contain messages with an insight into human beings and phenomena through speed, rhythm, and weight. Choreographer Cheol-in Jeong embraces the melancholic emotions that he faces and tries to show the reach to the future and the ideal by overcoming the limitations and expansion of body language through art.

Cast and Creatives

Choreographer: Cheolin Jeong
Dancer: Cheolin Jeong and Jisoo Ryun
Company Producer: Minyoung Kim
Sound director: Yechan Lee