Leading Korean Dancers Including Kim Seoljin and An Aesoon Gather for 'Modape 2020' Opening Next Month

Jung Young-du 'Out of Reach' ⓒLG Art Center

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] The 39th International Modern Dance Festival (2020 International Modern Dance Festival·MODAFE 2020), hosted by the Korean Contemporary Dance Association, will take place from May 14 to 29 at Daehangno Arko Arts Theater Grand Theater and Small Theater, Korea Disabled Culture and Arts Center Eum Art Hall, and online via Naver TV and V Live.

MODAFE 2020, under the theme "Little Heroes, Come Together!", is a stage that supports the small citizens who diligently and meaningfully cultivate their lives despite the mechanizing world and the structural difficulties of living as oppressed individuals, as well as the artists who express and sublimate these life dances into art.

The opening stage of MODAFE Choice #1 features choreographers Lee Kyung-eun, Kim Seol-jin, Jung Young-doo, and Ahn Ae-soon, while the closing stage of MODAFE Choice #2 is decorated by the Daegu City Dance Company.

Choreographer Lee Kyung-eun presents "OFF destiny," a work expressing the fantasy of escaping from given fate and narrowing fixed roles through dance. OFF destiny won first place choreography award at the 2004 International Solo Tanz Theater Festival in Germany.

Choreographer Kim Seol-jin, well known to the public as the winner of "Dancing 9," presents the work "SOM." It explores through movement whether it is possible to see each other without prejudice despite misunderstandings created by communication, language, and gestures in the gap of existing together but apart like islands. Related open research exhibition "SOM exhibition" will also be held from May 8 to 10 at "Onsu Space" in Hapjeong-dong.

Anaesun project 'Times square' ⓒ Ok Sang-hoon

Choreographer Jung Young-doo presents "Unreachable," a work expressing various images, emotions, and memories felt through the passage of time and the process of change. Gayageum performers Park Kyung-so and Lim Ji-hye will perform together.

World-renowned choreographer Ahn Ae-soon, the first Korean contemporary choreographer recorded in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and former artistic director of the National Contemporary Dance Company, will perform "Times Square." Ahn Ae-soon has focused on "the invisible world of the body with time, spacetime, and tense," creating works such as "Here There," "Already Not Yet," "Parallel Crossing," and "Zero Dimension." At MODAFE 2020, Ahn Ae-soon pays attention to the temporality that makes us reflect on our lives and think about the present amid the sudden COVID-19 disaster situation where everyone is struggling. This work seeks to find our subjective temporality within, rather than living trapped in absolute life.

The grand finale of MODAFE 2020 is "Be," directed by artistic director Kim Sung-yong of the Daegu City Dance Company. This work proves through existence (Be) that the value of dance can be upheld with conviction to overcome difficult times worldwide as now. "Be" is an omnibus composition of six works including highlights from Daegu City Dance Company's well-received regular performances "Crowd," "Triple Bill," "DCDC," and new works "The Thin and Long Message," "The Car," and "Be." Founded in 1981, Daegu City Dance Company is Korea's first national public contemporary dance company and the only Korean contemporary dance company with permanent members.

Tickets for MODAFE 2020 performances can be purchased on the Korea Arts & Culture Education Service website. For group ticket inquiries, please contact the MODAFE Secretariat.

Daegu City Dance Company Kim Seong-yong 'Be' ⓒDaegu City Dance Company

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.