Performance Info

Lee K-Dance is a contemporary dance company founded in 2002 by Lee Kyung Eun, a choreographer, with an art philosophy of ’Let’s communicate with the public through authentic dance.’ It is characterized by geometric movements and explosive energies and is rated as expanding the experience of individuals into the social area.

Artistic Director Lee, Kyung Eun

Interview

Q: “Annyeong Hello!” is a multi-faceted, nuanced work that deals with the universality of diaspora through issues like war, the division of a country and its people, war refugees, migration, failure to settle down, loss of identity, and anxiety. Can you develop these themes and speak specifically to the project’s origins?

We started from the question of whether our lives are truly “at peace,” the meaning of the word annyeong. Each time I go overseas for a performance, people ask me whether I’m from North Korea or South Korea, which awakened me to the fact that I’m a citizen of a divided country. It then led to the question of how the people of the world’s last divided country can meet one another. “Annyeong Hello!” is about whether we can find peace in a life that is like walking a tightrope amid the anxiety forced on the individual by society through things like national division, war, refugees, migration, and the failure to settle down after migrating. The biggest theme was national division: The performance moved toward the meeting of people, which did happen — but as a dream that is broken down in the end. Another theme was “unfinished house.” Wooden planks, a common building material in the postwar years, take on various roles in this production: As a house, a line that connects people, a border, or a line that blocks two people from maintaining a relationship. Each time we work on a production, I try to achieve a fluid connection between the choreography, stage art, and costumes — something that “Annyeong Hello!” pulls off beautifully. It’s why I decide on the material(s) to be used simultaneously with the choreographic theme. To emphasize the connection between these, we give a lot of attention to choosing the props and costumes.

It is a solo work that I feature in and direct. Despite the monumental obstacles that present themselves over 10 months, people are born into this world. Despite the difficulty of having dreams, we work as hard as we can to achieve them. It’s not easy to dance, but we dance! This is the context for “Nevertheless.” I tried to interpret human life through the spaces we inhabit. This work starts in a small room. After being born in this room, the dancer — me — has dreams in it and then breaks free of it to go out into the world to achieve her dreams. Once I go out into the world, my perspective is broadened — but I am left with the fear and anxieties I had while in the small room. I wanted to tell audiences that, despite everything, we need to be strong and not be afraid to pursue our dreams. The movements start from the minuscule movements of the fetus in a mother’s womb and eventually become confident steps taken by an individual who wants to live her life to the fullest.

“Two” began at Montpellier Danse 2002, which conducted a residency for 12 choreographers. During the residency, Director Susan Buirge of the Royaumont Foundation asked me to take part in a project called “Grand Atelier,” which is based on the collaboration of a composer and choreographer. Our job was to experiment with a new genre that is made through the encounter of dance and music. I decided to take a contrarian stance: Namely, that sounds from movement can be music and that a musician’s movements can become dance. I experimented a lot with ideas that had dance at the center because I believed that there is no point in searching for sound without dance. The most important “resource” I had to collect was sounds that are made unconsciously while dancing — not artificial sounds. Throughout the project, I collected the sounds of breathing and bodies coming into contact, which we used as the source of the music. Our first performance in 2005 in Paris was under the theme “Encounter and Connection”: In 2017, we expanded the theme to be about encounter through sound.

“BreAking” was done as part of the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company’s HIP合 (Hip Hop) program: It is a production that blends elements of contemporary dance, street dance, and traditional Korean music. The unique spelling of the title refers to people whose identity has been chained to the “B-list” level. It occurred to me that, if these people can be agents of their change and gain the strength to move away from such enforced identities, they, too, can live A-list lives. Another question I wanted to answer was: How can we awaken a world that has been paused by the pandemic? We decided that the awakening should be done with the rhythms of dance. By focusing on the unique traits of hip-hop, contemporary dance, and traditional Korean music, we wanted to mash up and mix up the world with these traits and rhythms. Dance is, by necessity, compartmentalized into genres — contemporary dance, street dance, traditional Korean dance. I, however, believe that all of these genres are not so different from one another, which is why I tried to break all of the barriers through this production. By recognizing differences and prioritizing coexistence, we were able to let each genre’s characteristics roam free and show their true colors. Looking back, my work is comprised of three large sections. The first was about my personal stories, which were later expanded into stories about our society. The second was about the universe, existence, and people and their daily lives. I am now concentrating on the coexistence of diversity, for which “BreAking” is the first step. LEE K-DANCE’s next production will also be about diversity.

I made Ato because I want LEE K-DANCE to communicate in a unique language. Ato is a pure Korean word that means “gift.” We chose this word because we want our productions to be a gift — for our dancers as well as our audiences. I want dance to be something that is fun and for our dancers to have fun moving their bodies. Because it’s no fun once movement is turned into patterns, we use Ato for each of our productions. We develop all movements that come from our bodies, from the smallest to the largest movements. We have a few ground rules (e.g., Making large movements if we feel that we are making too many small ones, to “break” part of the body free if someone’s movements get tangled up) that we use to direct all of our physical movements through practice. This makes it possible for audiences, when they see our performances, to immediately recognize it as ours. Movement without meaning is not interesting. Through our many performances, LEE K-DANCE is building up a unique context because we are driven by meaning. I try to make our works a blend of fun and movements that match the theme. I also want to create new social perspectives through our performances. Ato is a language that is special to LEE K-DANCE that helps us achieve our goals.

I’ve been working with plays for about 15 years. In short, I believe body movements that are imbued with metaphor and symbolism are more powerful than 100 words. At the moment, I am working on two projects: One is on using abstract beauty and symbols to express performers’ movements in various areas of the performing arts. The other is on accentuating theatrical scenes through not only the performers’ movements but also movements related to objects or stage art. Experiences like these have made me realize that there is no need to keep genres separate with dividing lines — which is right in line with LEE K-DANCE’s endeavors in breaking down such barriers. LEE K-DANCE uses a lot of “everyday” movements. Our productions are a mixture of dance and movement, which I believe is because of the influence of our work with other performing arts.

I think a lot these days about the social role of the choreographer. A choreographer is someone who communicates with audiences through the dance productions that they design. I send messages to society through dance because that is my job. Now is the time, however, to go beyond using dance to simply convey messages to create new perspectives, which is what LEE K-DANCE will focus on for the time being.

Production Details

〈Annyeong Hello!〉
〈NeverthelesS〉
〈TWO〉
〈BreAking〉
〈Spring Dream〉

- 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, UK
- 2017 ADF International Choreographers Residency, USA
- 2016 Rencontres Choregraphiques de Seine-Saint Denis ‘Focus Coree’, France
- 2011 Contemporary Dance Festival, Mexico
- 2006 APAP, USA
- 2005 Japan+Korea Dance Contact, Co-choreography with Saito Eiji, Japan
- 2005 KAAY FECC Festival, Senegal
- 2005 Grand Atelier, Co-work with composer Evis sammoutis, France

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