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Performance Info

JEONG Se Young (Director. Choreographer.)

: Performing the dry fantasy

After studying theatre in Korea, you went to Monaco and Montpelier to study stage art and dance. You have studied a variety of subjects.

I studied theatre directing in Korea and moved to Monaco to study stage art and ended up studying dance there. I worked on ballet collaborations at the École Supérieure d’Arts Plastiques de Monaco and I found that in terms of structure dance seemed to have more room for freedom than traditional theatre. I studied at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier/Univ. Montpellier 3 EXERCE MASTER, and I felt free to express myself there because there was an idea that everything we do can be considered dance.

The performance series you are developing, Deux ex Machina has an interesting title. What concept does the title derive from?

I made this when I was studying in Montpelier. I made several versions with similar structures with the same title. Deux ex Machina (2013) is a plot technique used in ancient Greek tragedies. A supreme being emerges at the very last moment of a story and takes care of a seemingly impossible predicament. It came from the idea that the goal of most stage productions is to express fantastical and impossible scenarios. If theatre is about creating fantasy then why not show it. So the intention is to show a short of dry fantasy.

In the performances, the real movements are performed by objects. The characters mostly bring the objects to the stage, place them, operate them and watch them.

I intend to express the traditional story line form through the use of symbolic tools. Dance doesn’t have to be performed by humans. The steam releases from the kettle, balloons fly into the sky, fans fall down while spinning. It is a narrative that uses the machine’s mechanic movements and ordinary tools to create drama. I like to think that when the audience sees this folding out on stage they would experiences emotions similar to those when they are relieved.

You received a prize at the Danse Elargie. How did you come to participate in the Korean competition?

I knew of Danse Elargie since I was in France. I understood that the participants had very different backgrounds and I decided to participate because it coincided with a time period in which I was on a break. Upon observing the participants, it seemed as though the questions “what is dance?” and “what is dance in the contemporary era?” were being prioritized through the expansion of the horizons of dance. I presented Deus ex Machina and I was fortunate to have won a prize.

It may be because of your expansive experience in many fields such as art, dance and theatre but you seem to be working in many different genres.

I think I have been working within the context of installation and performance because in Korea many of the opportunities are presented within the contemporary art scene. However, I enjoy working within a theatre setting rather than being limited to a certain genre. It’s just a matter of choosing one’s platform when one wishes to tell a story. When the range of choices become wider, the theatre can become a gallery or a museum and one’s position can change from observer to participant. I think that the form changes depending on the platform, distance and direction that one chooses to take.

Your work seems to be direction based ‘non-danse’ or post drama rather than text based.

I was heavily influenced in terms of dramaturgy. In terms of contemplating the symbolic structures, how to express the intention and how to reinvent ordinary things. Contemporary performance art seems to try hard to break from the illusionary nature of theatre. In German post drama or the ‘non danse’ in dance, there are many attempts to break away from the abstract and illusionary nature of art. I do believe that the attempt to break away from illusions creates an illusion of “being broken out of illusion.” In the end, it can be said that the primary goal of theatre is to adjust that illusion to fit the era.

Why did you conceptual a project that involves going back to the traditional stage?

As I started exploring ways to break away from pre-existing structures I started thinking that perhaps it is easier to deny or go away from structure and rules. If you don’t like illusion, you can choose not to create it. It is easy to deny and refuse something. However, wouldn’t it make sense to know how to come back from it, for example if you refused to use narrative, you should be able to find a way to acknowledge it as well. It would be more accurate to say that it is an attempt to deny the act of denial. If the first attempt was to break away from the boundaries of drama, the current question is “how do I go back to theatre in a sensible way?”

What do you consider most important when directing?

I think primarily of the theatre and the space when beginning the work. The act of entering the space itself symbolizes the act of brining in the external social context. I tend to think about how to manage the space a lot.

I also pay a lot of attention to the details of balance and figures. I think it’s because I feel obligated to give it a sense of security. Especially when the story that I’m telling is somewhat incomplete. I want to make the viewer see the unstable story by presenting stable visuals. I use symmetry, proportions and triangle frames that are commonly used visual techniques in theatre.

How about the work with performers?

I try to make them understand as much as possible. I try to be careful of the aspects that can commonly arise in terms of director-performer relations, especially because at a subconscious level, I have the potential to manifest certain qualities that directors tend to have. Plays and dance pieces are fundamentally different in terms of movement of the body and the attitudes towards physicality themselves. I end up telling theatre actors not to take movement too seriously because they tend to use their bodies in a much more dramatic way. Dancers, due to their developed sense of rhythm, are capable of fluid movement transitions whereas actors are good at making the audience pay close attention to them. I find it very interesting to observe these different attitudes towards physicality.

What is the main dilemma when it comes to your work?

Appropriateness is required when it comes to physical action, only outside of the theatre. Within a theatre or performance context, it is more important to think about how the physical activity will end up. The result that is independent from appropriateness, in other words, this type of ‘ending’ needs to be justified with a reason and goal. I continue to search answers to these questions through my work. That is the only way to find out the truth about why I do what I do in theatre.

* Photo "Deux ex Machina" Copyright : LG Arts Center

Production Details

Director
JEONG Se Young

Reference

E-mailirun0621@gmail.com

Program

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