Details

Based on Abe Kobo’s Woman in theDunes, a sensational piece that goes beyond expectation and imagination

About you and I who, living in thedunes

Aboutperformance

Named one of the 10 problematicwriters by New York Times and known as Japan’s Kafka, Abe Kobo’s well-knownwork Woman in the Dunes is brought onstage through Maholra Company’s unique interpretation. A story about a man whoescapes his dull and monotonous reality for a life with meaning and arrives ata village of sand, the novel won Yomiuri Prize for literature in 1963, awardfor best literature in France in 1968, and was translated into more than 20languages, earning the author a world-wide fame. Adapted from the novel thatcontains a strong dramatic structure, this well-made piece involving bothdancers and actors questions our life that naturally draws borders andseparates ‘you’ and ‘I.’ The main object appearing in the piece is ‘sand.’ Grainsfrom rocks with the size to be taken the furthest by a fluid, sand floatssometimes and settles sometimes. From a man and woman who live in sand and likesand, we can see that it doesn’t mean much to distinguish and confine migrationand settlement, freedom and confinement, human and nature, and the self andother, and that those borders are actually nonexistence as if the Möbius strip.The values that seem to be distinctly separated are in fact connected back toback, and eventually the one who makes choice and defines them is anindividual, the existential being who decides where to place his or her valuesor identity.

Maholra Company offers its uniquetake on the unending question on what we can find in the original novel ofstrong dramatic structure: ‘the essence of the primal being that is human,’ aswell as the opposing values of settlement and migration, and freedom andconfinement.  

Choreographer· Director’s notes

A story about something that will break down eventually

Thestory of Woman in the Dunes unfoldsin a fantastical place yet talks about reality. Stripping away the urbanbuildings, modern civilization and even the clothes we wear, what we’re leftwith is this village of sand and its villagers. The drama that questions thepower structure, individual freedom, social customs and meaning of existence isa great material that enables the ‘rawest’ telling of ourselves today.

Asfor the way of expression of this piece as well, we’d like to directly approachthe inherent essence, rather than the signs which are given their meanings by‘customs,’ ‘relations,’ and ‘systems.’ Dealing with a primal subject witheverything else stripped away, this piece fills the stage with rather rough yetstraightforward images, removing the languages of dance, theatre and music:‘sound’ that is neither music nor sound design, and movements that are neitherdance nor theatre. Rather than delivering information or meanings, the piecewill bring the audience to this space in a sensuous and intuitive way.

Choreographer  Jae-seung Kim

Jae-seungKim earned BFA and MFA degrees in dance from Korea National University ofArts(KNUA) and finished his Ph.D courses at Dankook University. As a dance witha strong interest in modernizing tradition, he is getting wide attention withhis creations based on Korean traditional dance. Kim won Golden Prize from the37^th Dong-A Dance Concour and was chosen to take part in theIncubating Program for Emerging Choreographers 2011 by Arts Council Korea.Currently as the head of Maholra Company, he has choreographed a wide range ofworks such as Corea Ura, Being Survivor,Prayer, Sa-ahlpu-uri, Honpuri, Connection,Gentleman, Communion, and Tightrope.Also the Grand Prix winner of Seoul International Choreography Festival in 2013and 2015, Kim’s works are invited to many international theatres.

Credit

Original by / Abe Kobo
Choreography / Jae-seung
Directed by / SeonkyongYim
ssistant ChoreogpheYun-na JangComposer/Music
ram LeeActing Coach / Sang-ha Park
Stage Design / Il-kyoung Cho
Costume Design / Min-kyoung Seong
Stage Manager / Dong-hwan Shin
Lighting / Hyun-ju Kwak
Sound / Sun-young Huh
Producer / Hyeri Jung
Cast / Yun-na Jang, Jin-il Hong,Bong-su Kim, Moo-

an Ki, Do-yeun Kim, Won-young Kim, Soo-yun Park, Go-woon Lee,Hye-jun Lee, Su-yeon Jeong, Seung-yeol Cho, Sol Han