Q: How did you first discover Dance?

A : When I was in 3^rd grade, I joined the Little Angels because I was mesmerized by how beautiful and extravagant dancers looked on stage. Ever since I was a little girl, I was very active. I did Taekwondo and even followed my mom to her Aerobics class so, naturally, I started dancing too.

Q: What made you decide to switch to?

A : When I was younger, I loved the extravagance of Korean traditional dance, but I admired the freedom of expression in modern dance. After graduating from college, I wanted to build on my education, so I attended many different workshops. The more you learn about modern dance, the more you see its depth and scope. Modern dance is about more than just selecting a character to choreograph a dance. I felt that, within it, I could find something of my own. So I went from workshop to workshop and ended up at the Korea National University of Arts.

Q: Maybe that’s why people say that there is a touch of Korean dance in your work.

A : It wasn’t my intention to use Korean dance, but I guess old habits die hard. I don’t try deliberately to employ aspects of Korean dance in my work, but the feel and weight of it are natural to me, and I won’t try to resist that. At the same time, some say that my dance is very modern, so it seems everyone has their own opinion.

Q: How did you come up with Woman on the Road?

A : I created that piece at a complicated time in my life. I had been nominated for the 2008 Critics Choice Awards, and given the chance to perform. However, at the time, I found myself trapped in a ‘victim mentality’ as a woman in my profession. Most of my colleagues in the industry were men, and every dance piece seemed to require the strong energy of male dancers. Artistically, I was determined to head in the opposite direction. I knew I needed to focus on my strengths, and use my female intuition. This is when I came up with Woman on the Road. Of course, there were limits to using my femininity as a creative device, but I wanted to test the waters to see how far I could go. Whether through dance moves or through the female form itself, as a woman, I tried to present my work in the most beautiful way possible, mustering every ounce of my femininity.

Q: You talk about “difference” in your work. Please expand on this.

A : I, personally, have not created an abundance of dance pieces, but I have often felt that people – including myself – do not communicate enough about “difference.” Whilst we shouldn’t necessarily feel hurt when others don’t embrace us, we should also address the possibility that we are not opening up to them. We must strive to respect each other’s differences, but we also need to change our mindset. Disrespect fosters conflict. We have trouble communicating, even with those closest to us, so it is only natural that bigger conflicts will arise between people living in different cultures on opposite sides of the earth. I have thought a lot about “differences” - differences in movement, differences in circumstance - and I have tried to communicate this in my work.

Q: What has been the response to your work?

A : People have said that the energy they felt was different from that in any other dance performances they had seen. There are always trends in dance, and the overall feedback was that, while Woman on the Road was in line with the current trend, it depicted different stories and possessed a unique energy. This could be down to my experience in Korean dance, but maybe my efforts to communicate through body expressions and find beauty in the female form paid off.

Q: In your recent piece Transfer of Existence, you explore the theme of minorities.

A : After Woman on the Road was released, people asked me whether I was a feminist. I didn’t really know about feminism at the time, so I had to look it up. I soon discovered that feminism is not about one woman’s opinion but, overall, it is about minorities. This inspired me to analyze my own social status, and is how Transfer of Existence came to be. There needs to be a transfer of social roles in our society. Transfer of Existence communicates idea not only about women, but also about all social minorities.

Q: Where do you find inspiration for your work?

A : I try not to use a lot of objects in my work. Personally, I feel I still have to conquer the human body. The human body is so attractive, and if too many extraneous elements are used on stage, it distracts the audience from seeing the body. There is so much we can say with the body, both in terms of the language of movement and in terms of its physical beauty. The more I explore the concept of the body, the more I find, which is why I’m still drawing inspiration from it. I still have so much more to explore.

Q: What themes are central to your work?

A : I’m very interested in the theme of life, whether my own personal life, or that of another person. This interest fuels my work. I am especially intrigued by the weight that life puts on one’s shoulders, which is why I try to express both weight and depth through movement in my work.

Q: How do you approach your audience?

A : I talk about audiences a lot with my colleagues. Communicating with the audience is, I believe, the biggest challenge that young artists face and we use a range of techniques in an attempt to engage with them. Everyone has their own individual methods, but we all agree that we have to find a unified way of reaching out to the crowd. Nowadays, people get a lot of stimulation from various media. So, rather than trying to show them something stimulating, I want to show them something fresh and new; something to think about. Therefore, my goal is not to produce an abundance of work, but to build on my existing work so that it can reach a wider audience.

Q: What are your plans for the near future?

A : Some colleagues from the Korea National University of Arts and I got together to start something called the Gachi Project. This November, I’m planning on doing some research with the other project members. We will investigate some topics that interest us and then showcase the findings. This coming winter, I plan to start work on a new solo piece, and next year I want to adapt and put a different spin on one of my older pieces, Silent War.

Q: What is your ultimate dream?

A : I want to communicate with more people from different cultures through my work. I get so excited when I think about traveling the world, meeting new people, and drawing on these experiences to make better dance pieces, as well as to mature on a personal level. Right now I’m hoping that Woman on the Road will get me a step closer to fulfilling that dream. Ultimately, I hope that I can live and dance, surrounded by art, even when I am an old lady with wrinkles and gray hair.