衛武營國家藝術文化中心 National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)

Anticipating the Next Dance with Dragons

"In 2020, the children of the millennial generation will have reached adulthood. They have their future and the world's future in their hands." 

For young people in Asia, reaching 20 means unlimited prospects, rapid physical and mental changes, and a starting point for independent thinking. While they are closely tied to the times, they also bear the burden of preserving thousand-year-old traditions. What will they bring to the Asian dance world and its future in this transitional climate?

After leading ajummas on stage in 2019, the Godmother of South Korean choreography, Eun-Me AHN, returns to Weiwuying alongside six twenty-year-old millennial dragons. They are of different nationalities and physical attributes, but all were born in 2000. The six dragon dancers, carrying the expectations of the world, will join hands with the dancers of Eun-Me Ahn Company to explore dynamics and energy and to imagine the trend of Asian dance. The ones to raise the issue are the dragons dancing on the stage. (written by TSAI Ruiling)

  Pre-talk  

2023/6/10(Sat)19:00 Playhouse 2F Lobby

2023/6/11(Sun)14:00 Playhouse 2F Lobby

  Creative and Production Team  

Choreography & Artistic Direction｜Eun-Me AHN

Music｜Young-Gyu JANG

Costumes & Set Design｜Eun-Me AHN

Lighting Design｜Jin-Young JANG

Video Direction｜Tae-Seok LEE

Motion Design｜Tae-Seok LEE, Min-Jeong LEE (Addnine)

Creation Technical Director｜Jim-Yung KIM

Dancers｜Eun-Me AHN , Jee-yeun KIM, Hye-kyoung KIM, Ye-seul ROH, Sun-jae JO, Ui-young JUNG, Gaon HAN, Yong-sik MOON

Dancers on Screen｜Guan-Ting ZHOU (Taiwan), Nur Syahidah Binti Hazmi (Malaisia), Akari TAKAHASHI (Japan), Ji-Wan JUNG (South Korea), Siko Setyanto (Indonésie), Dwi Nusa Aji Winarno (Indonésie)

Production: Eun-Me Ahn Company, Gadja Productions

Co-produced by National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Yeongdeungpo Art Hall, Busan Cultural Center, Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, Festspielhaus St Pölten, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and Les Halles de Schaerbeek

With the support of Arts Council Korea, Indonesian Dance Festival, ASWARA - Akademi Seni Budaya Dan Warisan Kebangsaan, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse N°1, Dancers' Career Development Center

Partner: Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival

  Artists Introduction  

Choregraphy & Artistic Direction｜Eun-Me AHN

Eun-Me AHN is one of the leading artists in the Korean performing arts industry. She established a dance company in Seoul in 1988 and moved to New York in 1999. In 2001, she returned to Korea to continue choreographing, reinterpreting Korean classics and exploring current social issues, often collaborating with non-traditionally trained dancers. She has received international acclaim from the arts community and has created over 150 dance pieces, including Symphoca Princess Bari, Let Me Change Your Name, and Dancing Grandmothers, all of which have been staged at renowned venues around the world. AHN is taking residency at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.

How many creators have struggled to find the way to describe what is finally the lot of every artist : on the one hand to know, understand, integrate what the ancients did ; on the other to forget them, overcome them and hope to find something new. Quite a vast program...

On this level, Eun-Me AHN that France discovered in 2013 and 2014 thanks to Festival Paris Quartier d'Eté, has found new, unexpected and Eun-Me AHN "La gaité appellee le bonheur. La danse appelle le bonheur." exciting ways. This comes first from her own itinerary, marked as much by the learning and exploration of shamanic traditions as by the many years spent in New York or a profound friendship with the missed Pina BAUSCH (who invited her many times in Wuppertal). Korean and cosmopolitan, figure of the avant-garde but also choreographer of the very official opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup in Daegu in 2002 and presented in the most important international festivals, she knows how to improve the beauties of contrast, mix polka dots, stripes and flowers, how to play with the most pop colors before switching to the most solemn austerity, how to play with the most subtle shades of androgyny, or use slowness to make trance rhythm burst...

Educated at the school of rigor, precise, demanding and of all Korean discipline, Eun-Me AHN is also a daredevil performer, ready for all kinds of piracies. One have seen her jump from the top of a crane, then attack a piano with axe and scissors, rip off herself her fairy dress made of white ties to distribute the pieces to the audiences while performing a teddy bear dance, bury herself with a clown costume under a rain of balloons, locked up behind bars in a duet with a chicken, or dressed up as a mushroom... But one would be wrong thinking it is provocation. It is rather the affirmation of a curiosity and a freedom held by work and style pushed to their most unexpected limits.

©Sukmu Yun