Diversity of Korean Dance

Park Kyung-rang, a master of Gyobang-gutgeori. Dance "Gyobang" is a sort of institution that used to instruct courtesans, or "ki-saeng," to master various kinds of artistic performance. In that sense, Gyobang-gutgeori Dance is originally the dance of ki-saeng culture. The exciting beat of "gutgeori" rhythm stimulates the ambience of this repertoire, while the dancer dazzles the audience with her florid movement using a folding fan. Both significant elements, the movement and the rhythm, come from the eastern region of Korea, which is known for the splendor of its cultural splendor.

Jin Yu-rim, Important Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 27 and 97(Buddhist dance, Salpuri), Master of Seungmu. Seungmu is a Korean dance performed by Buddhist monks. It is one of the most famous Korean traditional dances and designated as South Korea's important intangible cultural asset number 27 in 1969. It has been developed into a solo dance by professional dancers nowadays.Every now and then, when one rhythm shifts to another, the dancer changes the mood by changing his steps Some regard Seungmu as the most beautiful Korean dance, for the mixture of flowing movements and stillness. The dancer's long and white sleeves movements, the serenity of white hood, a breathtaking pause, and then a soul-stirring movement contribute to the singular uniqueness of the Seungmu

This company, whose name means 'creating dance' has so successfully fused the core of Western modern dance with traditional Korean dance that it evokes the work of Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. Kim Maeja not only offers an invitation to the dance, but an invitation in the order of the Buddhist world upon which both traditional Korean dance and her own dances are based. _South China Morning Post / Julia Fax

Sungsoo Ahn Pick-up Group’s works are always ‘educational.’ His ‘classical’ interpretation on ‘classical music’ is beautiful. So is Sungsoo Ahn Pick-up Group’s <rose & mating dance> with the theme of Nijinsky’s <the rite of spring>, the great piece of dance music of the 20th century, and Ravel’s <bolero>. They made clear and distinct images as beautiful lines well._KIM Seung hyun, Choom, 2009

Mr. CHOE is a quietly mesmerizing performer, whether moving his arm in long, leisurely but alert circles to stoke the gong in the group work or powerfully commanding the stage with just the attenuated, subtle stretching of his body in his own “Cloud and Rock,” danced to an atmospheric score by Mr. KIM. A little jewel of a dance that was a highlight of the program, the solo made one want to see more of Mr. CHOE, now also enrolled at New York University.” _Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times <review dance>

Darkness Poomba by Kim Jae DukTwo male dancers ignite Darkness Poomba with a duet performed under severe top-light. A fast and furious exchange of angularly choreographed movement, hands mechanically grasping for each other’s faces, and bodies regimented in a forward facing stance. Creating the illusion of a robotic pair of Siamese twins, the two young men are a fashionable modern day fruition of an ancient cog-like machine. Five dancers clad in chic black clothing sharply enter from the peripheries to join the machine and expand upon the gothic energy that has been created (.....) Not one sense is privileged over the other in this haunting re-contextualization of the traditional South Korean melody of Poomba. A truly interdisciplinary and multi-layered work, audience members are taken on a strange and unexpected voyage through the realms of contemporary dance, traditional song, stadium rock, and festival reggae music. Although such a journey may sound schizophrenic and disjunctive in nature, this collage of contexts and performance genres is executed seamlessly. Darkness Poomba is a work that manages to constantly transform our environment before we have even noticed, each world almost functioning as a sinister critique of the one that has come before._Cat Ruka

Arms, legs, hair: all gears smoothly into various painterly and almost illusionistic visual impressions. It is beautiful as a painting. Sun-A Lee's choreography is one of the most visually elaborate and detailedly skillful dance works I have ever seen. Few choreographers have such an artistic consciousness on the visual impression._Björn Gunnarsson, Hallands Nyheter, 2013.11.23.