Lee Eun-won's new adventure on pointed toes

Ballet dancer Lee Eun-won poses for a photo at the rehearsal studio of the Korea National Ballet in the Seoul Arts Center, southern Seoul, June 29. She will join the Washington Ballet led by Julie Kent starting August. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Becoming a ballerina in a tutu is every girl’s dream after watching a great ballet performance. Lee Eun-won, 25, of the Korea National Ballet (KNB), was no exception when she saw “The Nutcracker” at the age of seven.

“My parents took me to The Nutcracker which features many child dancers. So I began learning ballet just because I wanted to wear those pretty costumes back then,” Lee said in an interview with The Korea Times last week, ahead of her departure for the Washington Ballet this summer.

Though starting small, her ballet career has always been on track — she studied under Kim Sun-hee, dance professor at Korean National University of Arts (K-ARTS), and Kim Hae-shik, founding dean of the K-ARTS School of Dance, and attended a preparatory school for K-ARTS (now the Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts) and Yewon School. She skipped the high school course and entered K-ARTS with a three-year early admission.

Lee Eun-won as Black Swan in “The Swan Lake

“Ballet is a part of my everyday life. For me, it’s just like waking up in the morning, having breakfast and brushing your teeth,” she said.

However, she hit a slump when she suffered a knee injury around age 18.

“I had to take about eight months off from ballet. I always wondered whether ballet was my way or not, but while catching my breath away from ballet for a few months, I realized what I really like and want to pursue is ballet,” Lee said. “Ballet is something you cannot continue if you don’t like it because it’s really hard and exhausting. I have seen some of the greatest dancers quit ballet because they didn’t have enough passion and love for ballet.”

Lee Eun-won as Katerina in “The Taming of the Shrew”

She joined the KNB as an apprentice in 2010, taking the lead role of Marie in “The Nutcracker” in the same year. After being officially accepted to the KNB in 2011, she was rapidly promoted to a principal within two years and danced a variety of roles including Giselle from “Giselle,” Yegina in “Spartacus” and Nikiya and Gamzatti in “La Bayadere.”

The KNB principal dancer recently staged her farewell performance in Korea for now as feisty Katherina in John Cranko’s “The Taming of the Shrew.”

“Shrew requires much energy. It is different from other classical ballets and I get to fly into a temper and jump on stage a lot,” Lee said. “Katherina is poles apart from traditional characters in ballet who are mostly innocent and benign. She is honest about her feelings. Coincidentally, my baptismal name is Katherina, too.”

Lee Eun-won as Kitri in “Don Quixote”

Lee will leave the KNB to join the prestigious Washington Ballet led by Julie Kent, one of the most celebrated ballerinas of her generation, for the 2016-17 season.

Kent retired from her 29-year career last year and took the helm at the Washington Ballet, which celebrates its 40h anniversary this season. Kent knew of Lee through recommendations from her Korean therapist and former K-ARTS professor Kim Hae-shik and officially asked Lee to join her company in early June.

“I always thought of dancing abroad, so I seized the opportunity when the chance offered itself to view,” she said. “Ballet is basically a foreign culture and I wanted to go overseas and work with diverse people. I also wanted to stand on my own feet as a grown-up.”

Since Lee studied ballet and danced thoroughly within Korea, this is literally going to be the 25-year-old dancer’s first independence, breaking away from her family to live on her own.

“I am working on documents and visa now. I will leave for Washington in August and find a place to stay there. I try not to stress out about it,” she said.

In Washington, she will run into a totally new environment and face a wide range of different works. “I wonder about how I will change there. Of course I will learn new ballet repertoire, half filled with anticipation and half with worry, but I am more curious about how the experience will reshape my life and profundity of thoughts.”

Her first dance in the U.S. is going to be the timeless classic “Giselle,” which is the first piece she performed after formally entering the KNB. Lee is also thrilled to take part in new works in the Washington Ballet’s repertoire as most of them are new to her except for “The Nutcracker” and “Giselle.”

“I am the most excited over Frederick Ashton’s ’The Dream.’ A few years ago, I saw ’The Dream’ in New York, presented by the ABT, and Julie Kent was playing Titania. I thought she was really like a fairy and have great expectations for the piece,” Lee said.

Her KNB colleagues who worked for international ballet companies advised her. “Kim Ji-young told me not to bite off more than I can chew from the beginning and rather be like what I used to do. Being overzealous from excitement might lead to an injury so I will try to balance myself,” she said.

Balancing ballet and her personal life was another keyword in Lee’s life. “As a dancer, I want to be a dancer with heart. As a human I want to find the equilibrium between ballet and me. In Korea, though it has changed now, many dancers retire after marriage or childbirth. I don’t want to give up my private life because or ballet or the other way round,” Lee said.

Now she is about to spread her wings at a wider stage, but Lee said she will ultimately come back to her homeland.

“I am a Korean, born and raised in Korea and I want to be back someday. I hope I would be a better, well-experienced artist then,” Lee said.