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!"