Kontemporary Korea: A Double Bill of K:Dance
A Festival of Korean Dance 2025
About Kontemporary Korea: A Double Bill of K:Dance
Kontemporary Korea is a showcase of two of the freshest new voices in K-dance, each finding inspiration and play in the balance between the mundane and the virtuosic.
The choreography is both radical and lucid, executed with exceptional precision, especially in its visual presentation.
Min-kwan Kim, Art Scene
The uniqueness of this piece lies in its simplicity, yet it stands apart from other performances by consistently questioning dance as a thoughtful act, culminating in a single, cohesive work.
Ji-hyun Lee, Dance Critic
A Complementary Set_Disappearing with an Impact Choi x Kang Project
Are we able to control those outside of our gaze?
Choi x Kang Project’s experimental piece uses video and performance to explore the gap between different dimensions. Choreographers Min-sun Choi and Jin-an Kang focus on connecting with the body through multidisciplinary experiments and external devices, often drawing on collaborations with artists from other fields, and finding humour in the gap between what we see and what we expect to see.
Images filmed live on stage, re-broadcast on a screen behind the performers, battle with their physical presence for our attention. Sound becomes noise as it loses its power to exist as music, and theatre’s limitations are tested and revealed.
Age: 12+
Duration: 25 mins
About Choi x Kang Project
Choi x Kang Project is a group composed of Min-sun Choi and Jin-an Kang, who look for intuitive ways to generate movement and focus on the process of connecting with the body through multidisciplinary experiments and external devices. They have been expanding their own territory through participation in multidisciplinary projects, not only in the field of dance but also through collaborations with artists from other fields such as literature, visual art and film. Through these collaborations with other genres, the group seeks to find a way out of the gap that occurs when the characteristics of each medium collide, and therefore to escape from traditional methods.
Choi x Kang won the Best Innovation in Performance Award at the 2024 Stockholm Fringe Festival and the Jury Prize at the 18th Yokahama Dance Collection, a choreography competition in Japan.
Cast & Creatives
Choreographers and Performers: Min-sun Choi and Jin-a Kang
Filmer and Performer: Tae-kyung Kim
Scenographer: Ro-wa Jeong
Music Director: Yo-han Ko
Stage Manager: Eun-jin Jo
The performance is part of A Festival of Korean Dance, supported by the Korean Cultural Centre UK and the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange. The festival is presented in partnership with The Place, The Lowry, Dance City, and Pavilion Dance South West.
Moving and uplifting
The Herald, on Flight
0g (zero grams) by Melancholy Dance Company
Inspired by the repetitive and seemingly pointless actions of the mythical figure Sisyphus, 0g utilises the principle of ‘free fall movement’ to uncover the meaning of life anew within monotonous daily routines.
Melancholy Dance Company, founded by choreographer Cheol-in Jeong, plays with gravity through this principle of ‘free fall’ and applies it to various parts of the body, experimenting with extreme situations and dynamic movements, which are often dazzlingly virtuosic. The company return to the UK after their brilliantly received debut Flight in 2024.
Age: 9+
Duration: 30 mins
About Melancholy Dance Company
Founded in 2016 by choreographer Cheol-in Jeong, Melancholy Dance Company sees the world we live in itself as art. Their works Flight, 0g, Overmensch, Your Sign, Mobility, and Non-Protection take human life as the theme and explore human history and phenomena through variations of speed, rhythm and weight.
melancholy-dc.com
Cast & Creatives
Choreographer: Cheol-in Jeong
Performers: Ji-soo Ryu, Gyung-jae Mun, Cheol-in Jeong, Young-sang Ju and Joong-keun Jeon
Producer: Min-young Kim
Sound Director: Tae-kyung Choi
The performance is part of A Festival of Korean Dance, supported by the Korean Cultural Centre UK and the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange. The festival is presented in partnership with The Place, The Lowry, Dance City, and Pavilion Dance South West.
