It's a Wrap!


The 2012 DanceMotion USA season came to a close in a big way-with a beautiful, energetic, moving collaborative performance by Trey McIntyre Project and Korea National Contemporary Dance Company at BAM.  The evening featured repertory works by the companies' respective artistic directors Trey McIntyre and Sungyop Hong, as well as a collaboration between dancers from the two companies, choreographed by Trey McIntyre in Boise.

Trey McIntyre premiered his new piece, The Unkindness of Ravens,
in which TMP dancers collaborate with So Jin Lee, Anlee Chang and Taehee Kim of KNCDC

Yoonhee Lee and KNCDC perform "Mosaic"

KNCDC performs "Can't it really be helped?" an excerpt from their production Hoshitamtam

Performance photos courtesy of Stephanie Berger/BAM

Celebrating an incredible year 
of cultural diplomacy

Dancers, staff from BAM and the State Department, and friends of the program enjoyed a lively opening night reception to celebrate what this unique program has achieved in the last year.  

(And by lively, we mean lots of hand gestures, broken Korean-English translations, laughter, and of course, the obligatory Gangnam Flash Mob.  Check out all the photos on our Facebook page)

Sungyop Hong & Translator Ben Chon
(Photo: E Frossard)

TMP's Rachel and Ryan with KNCDC's Taehee
(Photo: E Frossard)

Miss the performance or want to see it again?

We streamed the performance live, a first for DanceMotion USA and for BAM (!), to a closed audience in Korea and publicly on Livestream.  Then, we also streamed the talkback, which featured members of both companies and took questions from audiences in Brooklyn and in Seoul.  You can watch all of it here:  DanceMotion USA on Livestream

Read what they're saying about

this unique partnership built through dance:

Press on TMP and KNCDC at the Morrison Center, Boise:

• Idaho Statesman: Korea Comes to Boise
• KTVB: Trey McIntyre Project Building Friendship Through Dance
• Boise Weekly Performance Preview
• Boise Weekly Review: Trey McIntyre Project's Fall Show Showcases Fertile Imagination

Press on TMP and KNCDC at BAM, Brooklyn:

• New York Times Preview: Pacific Crossings and Other Choreography
• New York Times Review: Fanciful Theatricality Proves a Shared Language
• DanceTabs Review

So Jin of KNCDC and Chanel of TMP

TMP and KNCDC in the windows of the BAM Hillman Studio

KNCDC in New York City!

Thank you everyone for an amazing year.

Get ready for more in 2013!

Fun at the Opening Night Reception

After an incredible opening at BAM, things just wouldn't have been right without a collaborative, impromptu Gangnam performance at the reception!

Read about our program's continuing relationship with the Gangnam dance here in Dance Spirit Magazine.

Read about us on the BAM Blog

Our Project Coordinator flew to Idaho last week to help make our US residency trailer and wrote all about her visit for BAM.  Give it a read here!

A Master Class, 7000 Miles Apart

DanceMotion USA got to help BAM Education test out its new equipment in our first ever distance learning event.

The event brought together middle-and-high school students from the Korean Traditional Music and Dance Institute (KTMDI) in New York City and middle-and-high school students of renowned Korean dance master Yi-Jo Lim in Seoul, Korea.

First the students from KTMDI performed drum dances for Master Lim and the Korean audience.
They may be young, but these Brooklyn dancers amazed the audience and received praise from Lim in Korea.

JindoBukchum, Jindo Drum Dance, KTMDI in Brooklyn

Janggochum, Janggo Solo Dance

Then, the KTMDI students sat down to watch as Master Lim and his students performed at Seoul Institute for the Arts  for the group in Brooklyn.

Watching HanRyangMu, the Noblemen's Dance


Not only did the class offer the Korean-American students at KTMDI a unique opportunity to learn from one of the most important figures in Korean dance, it also gave New York-based dancer (and KTMDI President) Yoon Sook Park the chance to reconnect with her teacher, Master Lim. 

Master Teacher Lim, Yi-Jo (in orange) teaches on screen

KTMDI students learn footwork up close...

...and put it together with arm movements. 



The evening concluded with the two groups posing for final portraits together, 7000 miles apart.

Watch the video of our distance learning event here.

You can also catch our next distance learning event live this Friday, when our performances at BAM are streamed to Seoul and Idaho, and all three audiences can ask questions at our post-show discussion.  

The Boise Grand Finale

It's SHOW TIME.

This past Saturday, An Lee, Taehee and So Jin performed with Trey McIntyre Project in TMP's annual fall show at the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts in Boise, Idaho, where they premiered Trey's new piece The Unkindness of Ravens together. This new work was inspired by both Trey's travel in Korea with DanceMotion USA this past spring, and his collaboration with Korea National Contemporary Dance Company members at home in Idaho. 

All photos courtesy TMP's Facebook Page:

People head to their seats

Dancers greet fans and sign posters after the matinee

Chanel of Trey McIntyre Project signs posters for her "biggest-smallest" fans 

Now, on to New York!  Trey McIntyre Project and KNCDC will perform The Unkindness of Ravens, along with pieces from each individual company, at BAM this week in Brooklyn.

 

Thank you to everyone in Boise - from the TMP staff to the Mayor's office to the friendly neighbors in the greater Idaho community - the success of this residency was a real testament to your kindness.
We here at DanceMotion USA couldn't thank you enough.  See you in Brooklyn - or maybe, Korea?



Teaching Korean Dance to TMP

After two weeks of An Lee, Taehee and So Jin intensively studying Trey McIntyre’s choreography, it was time for the Trey McIntyre Project dancers to learn some traditional Korean dance.

 An Lee and Taehee perform for the company

First, Anlee and Taehee performed what they remembered from their childhood.  Then, So Jin, who is formally trained in traditional dance, took the lead to teach both the Trey McIntyre Project dancers and staff. They started with a simple step, focused on walking and turning with their heels, which the dancers could use to travel across the studio.

So Jin!

Their translator Ben Chon quickly jumped into double-duty, playing the drum for the dancers while translating So Jin’s instructions.

As the dancers started to understand how to concentrate their movements in Korean traditional dance style, how to move their feet and angle their shoulders, they started to understand something else, too. Ben noted that as Americans, the Trey McIntyre Project dancers are open and expressive, in both their dancing and in their lives. "Americans have no problem," he said, "you can talk about anything on talk shows."
 

But in Korean dance, Ben explained, "you shut your mouth, and you close your ears so you express [emotion] very subtly. Same with affection and love, too, you don’t say ‘I love you’...subtly you find a way to express yourself, and that’s why it was so hard for them to make eye contact with you." 

TMP now understood why maintaining eye contact in their other rehearsals had been so counter intuitive for their new collaborators.  So Jin grinned when she saw them equally uncomfortable in the Korean gestures.  "See," she said giggling, "Now it's your turn!"  

Mayor of Boise Declares Official KNCDC Day

On Tuesday, Boise's Mayor David Bieter invited the KNCDC dancers, accompanied by TMP, to attend a special ceremony with the Boise City Council.  In a gesture of great generosity and honor, the Mayor declared October 30, 2012 official Korea National Dance Company Day in Boise.  Thank you, Idaho, for being such incredible hosts!

And some photos:

So Jin, An Lee, and Taehee
(c Shana Parker)

The whole group  (c TMP Blog)

KNCDC's So Jin thanks the City Council
and Ben Chon translates (c TMP Blog)

              TMP's John Michael with Mayor Bieter  
(c TMP Blog)

Presenting the proclamation
(c TMP Blog)

Korean Dinner in Boise

Ben Chon, our Korean translator out in Boise, hosted an amazing traditional Korean meal at his home the other night.  It was the dancers' first chance to really relax and hang out together.

 

 

And check out what happened at the end of the night:

 

Thank you Ben for such kindness and thank you TMP for the photos!

So Jin, Taehee, and An Lee in Boise

After an incredible airport welcome, the three KNCDC dancers are hard at work with TMP in Boise, rehearsing their new piece, The Unkindness of Ravens.

 

All photos from the Trey McIntyre Project Blog, where TMP is posting updates about the residency regularly.

Welcome KNCDC Dancers!

 

In one of the best airport welcomes we've ever seen, the entire Trey McIntyre Project company and staff, along with Boise residents, greeted An Lee, So Jin, and Taehee of KNCDC in the arrivals hall at Boise Airport on Sunday with some spectacular Korean moves.

 

 



 

Welcome to the USA, friends! 

Welcoming Korean Friends to our Inaugural US Residency

On Sunday, DanceMotion USA(sm) is proud to kick off our first dance exchange here on American soil.  We are thrilled to welcome our friends from Korea National Contemporary Dance Company to the USA for what promises to be an incredible collaboration between Korean and American dancers.

This spring, Trey McIntyre Project of Boise, Idaho toured with DanceMotion USA(sm)  to China, Vietnam, Korea, and the Philippines.  In Seoul, they met "KNCDC," with whom Trey felt a strong connection.

“…When I watched them in rehearsal, I could tell they had a real generosity of spirit and a way of being present and in the moment that is very similar to the way TMP works.”

On October 19th, three principal dancers from KNCDC will step off the plane in Boise, Idaho - where Trey McIntyre Project is based - to rehearse for three weeks with TMP on a new collaborative piece called "The Unkindness of Ravens," which they will perform both in Boise and at BAM as part of its renowned Next Wave Festival. 

Meet the Collaborating KNCDC Dancers



 

c Korea National Contemporary Dance Company

An Lee Chang holds a gold medal from the 2010 Korea International Concours and was awarded first place in the 2010 Seoul International Dance Concours.  She says about dance, "To me, dancing is a time which offers special moments where I can become another person."  And on performing in the Next Wave Festival with Trey McIntyre Project?  "The excitement and curiosity about starting something new, this piece with many other people, fills me with anticipation."

c Korea National Contemporary Dance Company
 

So Jin Lee is trained in ballet, contemporary, and traditional dance.  She has worked with Sungkyunkwan University, the Berlin DOCK11-Studio, collaborated with Danny Tan in Singapore, and with Dance Theatre ON for four years.  Now, as a dancer with KNCDC since 2010, she says, "I have come to understand the responsibility and attitude of mind that one must possess as a serious dancer.  I have always questioned the pull of internal movement in dance rather than its external appearance, and want to dance freely while simply breathing."  On performing at Next Wave?  "I know just how famous a place BAM is - just being able to perform there will be an extreme honor for me.  Over and out!"

 

c Korea National Contemporary Dance

Kim Taehee joined KNCDC immediately after her graduation from the Sunkyunkwan University of Art in 2010.  She says of KNCDC, "The level of ability of the individual is very important but I have learned that there is no energy that tugs on the heartstrings like that of the energy produced through the togetherness of the dancers helping each other."  She says that the idea of performing at the Next Wave Festival "seems like a dream - I'm slightly nervous but very much looking forward to the honor."



Trey works with An Lee, So Jin and Taehee in Seoul this August (c US Embassy Seoul)

After three weeks of rehearsals in Boise, Taehee, An Lee, and So Jin will join eleven of their KNCDC colleagues in Brooklyn along with Trey McIntyre Project for a weekend of collaborative performances with both companies at BAM. 

Stay tuned on Sunday for updates on their arrival!  Each dancer will be posting photos, videos, and thoughts for the duration of their time here in the United States. 

Follow us here on the blog, on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and on Instagram (dancemotionusa) to catch all of their adventures!