Seoul Intl Dance Festival to Be Held in October
By Han Sang-hee
Staff Reporter
October will be a month of dance with the Seoul International Dance Festival (SIDance 2008) Oct. 10-30.
Celebrated companies and choreographers from 16 countries, including Greece, Colombia, Germany and Croatia, have been invited to the festival to show off their exquisite dance moves.
``We will show everything related to the human body. The beauty, impact and fascination of the body will be portrayed in the dances,'' Lee Jong-ho, artistic director of SIDance 2008, said at a press conference Tuesday.
This year the festival will reach out to the audience with more colorful projects, performances and a special forum.
As it has done since 2001, the festival will start with a Korean traditional ritual dance called ``gut.'' SIDance 2008 has strived to ``modernize'' this dance form and will present ``Cheoyong Gut.''
By bringing this dance form to the event, the festival has been able to introduce Korean dance to the world and also remind local audiences that ``traditional'' doesn't just mean ``old.''
``Koreans are very interested in new things. But if a work is good enough to be on stage, we will present it to the audience, even if it's 10 or 20 years old,'' said Lee.
For those who think modern dance is difficult, SIDance 2008 will be the perfect venue to realize that it is in fact not that hard, as the festival will present interesting, fun and educational performances.
``Don Q'' from Germany will feature Egon Madsen and Eric Gauthier who will offer a comical contemporary ballet performance based on the famed novel Don Quixote. Madsen rose to stardom during the 1960s as a dancer at Germany's Stuttgart Ballet, one of the most famous ballet companies in the world. With Gauthier, another celebrated dancer praised by renowned choreographers such as Jiri Kylian and William Forsythe, the 66-year old dancer will offer this unique and humorous work.
``Gisaeng Becomes You'' is a special collaboration organized by American choreographer Dean Moss and Korean Kim Yoon-jin. Moss explained that he came up with the concept of this particular performance after reading a poem about Korean gisaeng, or female entertainers.
``First I had no understanding of the gisaeng life. But the way the book talked about the passage of people and nature, the idea seemed similar to my own life as a contemporary artist,'' Moss said.
The distinctive work about the life and beauty of gisaeng will have its world premiere at SIDance 2008 and also be on stage at the Hong Kong New Vision Art Festival in November and the Dance Theater Workshop in New York next year.
Along with performances, SIDance 2008 has arranged a special forum for dance lovers, critics and journalists. Well-known critics and journalists from around the world including Donald Hutera from The Sunday Times and Gia Koulas, dance critic of The New York Times, will get together to discuss the theme ``The Crisis of Dance Criticism Today.''
``We will talk about the problems and downfalls of journalism regarding dance reviews and critiques, along with ways to enhance the modern dance scene,'' Lee added.
Throughout the festival, ``Dancing City'' will also bring festivity to the streets, subways, department stores and even Gimpo International Airport.
SIDance 2008 runs Oct. 10-30 at Seoul Arts Center, Hoam Art Hall and other various venues including parks, streets and Gimpo. For more information visit www.sidance.org.
