Dance Victoria 2020-2021 VIRTUAL Season | Bereishit Dance Company online program

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Virtual Home Season Bringing the World’s Best Dance to your home

Bereishit Dance Company

KOREA // CONTEMPORARY DANCE

Balance and Imbalance and BOW_Control April 8–11, 2021 Watch Together/Chat After: Saturday, April 10, 2021, 5:00 pm Pacific (pre-register) Balance and Imbalance running time: 30 minutes • BOW_Control running time: 30 minutes Premiere: Balance and Imbalance (Bytom, 2011) and BOW_Control ( 2014)

Photo: BOW_Control by Sanghun OK

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Photo: Balance and Imbalance by Nikith Nath for the Arts Center at NYU-Abu Dhabi

2020-21 Season (Virtual) Home Series

Dance Victoria brings the World’s Best Dance to the Royal Theatre and your home, and supports the development of new dance for the international stage from its studios in Quadra Village. Dance Victoria is a non-profit charitable society.

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Dance Victoria Board: President

Susan K.E. Howard

Vice President

Robert Millar

Secretary

Colette Baty

Treasurer

Emily Zeng

Directors

Maggie Bartold Frances Grunberg Stacey Horton

Transcending the East and the West to Create Something New By now, if you subscribed to all four shows in our Virtual Home Season, you have seen dance performances from France/Algiers; Edmonton/Ukraine; Brazil; and now South Korea. It’s like a little tour around the world. This final presentation explores the boundaries of sport and dance.

Choreographer and Artistic Director Soon-ho Park has created two intensely physical works. Soon-ho’s choreography is acclaimed for its creation of something new, something which transcends the East and the West, dance and martial arts, and traditional and contemporary movement. He draws from many sources including hip-hop and judo, the Japanese martial art.

If you’d like to volunteer for Dance Victoria please visit DanceVictoria.com and complete the online volunteer form.

Park lived in Korea, then moved to Europe and back to Korea.

His own dance studies in aikido, Martha Graham, contact improvisation and modern dance influence his works and how he approaches dance creation. He is also very interested in sounds, and how sounds affect movement and how we communicate with others. You’ll notice that Balance and Imbalance includes pansori (Korean: ), a Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a singer and a drummer. Park uses pansori to meld forms of past and present. He isn’t concerned if you understand the story and can understand the language. Instead, he focuses on the sounds of the pansori and how it affects the movement.

Studios and Office: 111–2750 Quadra Street Victoria, BC V8T 4E8 P: 250-595-1829 F: 250-590-7209 info@dancevictoria.com

The pre-show conversation with Jacob’s Pillow Scholar-inResidence Maura Keefe with Soon-ho Park (and a translator) will give you some insights into what you’re about to experience. That conversation is accessible on Dance Victoria’s secure web page where you found these notes.

Staff: Executive Producer

Stephen White

General Manager

Bernard Sauvé

Operations Manager

Shireen McNeilage

Marketing Manager

Tracy Smith

Accounting

Julie Collins

Studios and Administrative Assistant Kiera Shaw Graphic Design

Rayola Creative

We hope that you enjoy this very special presentation with Korea’s Bereishit Dance Company, and that you’ll join the celebration and post-show discussion on Saturday at 5 p.m.

(You can pre-register from the secure page.) We sincerely thank you for your support!

Photo: Soon-ho Park

by Choi Young-mo

DanceVictoria.com for trailers, tickets and more information

Dance Victoria is supported by: PUBLIC FUNDERS

Dance Victoria wishes to thank its many donors and volunteers.

Dance Victoria’s Chrystal Dance Fund and Endowment Fund are held at Victoria Foundation. Dance Victoria is a proud member of the CanDance Network and the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture.

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About the Company The word ‘Bereishit’ (‫ תישארב‬/ Genesis) comes from the Hebrew word ‘Bereishit’, the first word in the Torah meaning ‘in the beginning’. The company’s work focuses on the dynamic relationship related to humanity and sociality. In that sense, the word Bereishit is a symbolic word for humans and the beginning of human civilization.

Founded in 2011 by Soon-ho Park, Bereishit is a Seoul-based dance company that approaches the Korean traditional culture from a contemporary perspective, maintaining the 2

fundamental value of practices, rather than borrowing or transforming them. The work blends innovative partnering, extraordinary isolations, and moments of theatricality with a fresh perspective. It displays a sensitivity towards space and rhythms and is always delivered with kinesthetic clarity and power. Bereishit has toured internationally including a sold out performance at the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi and in the US at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Pittsburgh Dance Council, ArtPower at UC San Diego, Strathmore and Celebrity Series of Boston.

2020-21 Season (Virtual) Home Series

About the Works Balance & Imbalance Choreographer: Soon-ho Park, Music: Traditional Korean Percussion and Pansori Sugungga Dancers: Cheol-in Jeong, Da-som Lee, Jae-woo Jung, Ji-soo Ryu, So-yeon Kim Percussion Musicians: Dong-sik Lim, Sung-gun Park Pansori Vocalist: Seo-hee Lee Lighting Designer: Seong-heon Lee What happens in this world is often contradictory, just like the principle of action and reaction in nature. Indeed, human history has revealed the co-existence and conflict of different elements: appearance and disappearance, gravitation and repulsion, freedom and oppression, love and hatred, good and evil. Such two opposite factors coexist and harmonize with each other and when combined, they become something new, complementing each other. This work expresses the dialectic of human relationships, which constantly revolve around the wheel of opposition and harmony.

About Pansori (Korean Opera) Sugungga: Sugungga is one of the five surviving stories of the Korean pansori storytelling tradition. The Dragon King of the Southern Sea is suffering from an ailment that can be cured only with the liver of a rabbit. The King thereupon summons all the ministers to look for the liver of a rabbit on the ground. The Terrapin volunteers his service to journey to a forest and return with a rabbit. The Terrapin succeeds in doing this by luring the rabbit with the wonderful prospects of living in the palace. The Rabbit, after discovering his danger at the palace, coaxes the King into allowing him to return to the forest by explaining that his liver was so much in demand that it finally became necessary to conceal it in a secret place and that he had, therefore, come without it.

Upon hearing this, the Dragon King of the Southern Sea grants the Rabbit permission to go back to the forest with the Terrapin after the rabbit promises that he will return with his liver. Once in the forest, the Rabbit ridicules the King’s and Terrapin’s stupidity and is never seen again. But the Rabbit is also actually quite moved by the Terrapin’s faithfulness to the King.

– Intermission – Photo: Christopher Duggan

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2020-21 Season (Virtual) Home Series

About the Works BOW_Control Choreographer: Soon-ho Park Music: The National Gugak Center Music Group and Gayageum Musician Dancers: Cheol-in Jeong, Jae-woo Jung, Ji-soo Ryu Musicians: Young-kil Kim, Jse-ha Lee, Su-ha Jang, Oh-hoon Lee, Won-young Shin Gayageum Musician: Kyoung-so Park Costume Design: In-sook Choi Archery: Jung-ho Kim Lighting Desiger: Seong-heon Lee Archery is an internal push and pull process which leads us to look deep within ourselves. Koreans have regarded this traditional sport as an art form. BOW_Control elaborates on what archery implies and translates the bow’s natural timbre and rhythm into a fluid and tight dance. Dancers explore the potential and possibility of the bow, not as a weapon, but a musical instrument moving through space and time, creating images of curvature.

Photos: Sanghun OK and Sang Yun

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2020-21 Season (Virtual) Home Series

Company Biographies SOON-HO PARK, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/CHOREOGRAPHER After majoring in contemporary dance at Hansung University, Soon-ho Park danced in Korea from 1992 to 2001. He then completed a program for choreographers at Europe Dance Development Center in Arnhem, the Netherlands. In 2007, he launched the Soonho Park Dance Project and became active internationally.

Since he founded Bereishit Dance Company in 2011, Park has presented original choreography based on continuous research on the human body, communication with multinational and multidisciplinary artists and reinterpretation of traditional art; thus, creating his own unique world. His choreography has been acclaimed for its perfect harmony of music and dance and for its creation of something new, transcending the East and the West, dance and martial arts and tradition and contemporary.

CHEOL-IN JEONG, DANCER Cheol-in Jeong studied contemporary dance at Hansung University and works with Gigu Dance Theatre and Bereishit Dance Company as a performer and choreographer. In 2010, Jeong participated in the International Collaboration Project for MODAFE and worked with choreographer Jae-young Lee. Jeong has participated in festivals around the world including the European Festival of Contemporary Art (2011), the Urban Moves International Dance Festival (2012), the Attakkalari India Biennale (2013, 2015) and Dance Salad Festival (2015), as well as other international venues. Jeong joined Bereishit Dance Company in 2012 and has traveled to Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uruguay with the company.

JAE-WOO JUNG, DANCER Jae-Woo Jung studied contemporary dance at Hansung University and works with Gigu Dance Theatre and Bereishit Dance Company as a performer and choreographer. Jung has participated in the Seoul Dance Festival (2011), HANPAC Rising Stars (2012), Attakkalari India Biennale (2015), and Dance Salad Festival DanceVictoria.com

(2015), as well as other international venues. Jung has won several awards including the title of Grand-prix at the Competition of Korean Contemporary Dance Association (2013), 1st Place at the 14th International Dance Competition in Greece (2014), and a Gold Medal at the International Contemporary Dance Competition in Korea (2014). Jung joined Bereishit Dance Company in 2012 and has traveled to Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uruguay with the company.

Festival Internacional Cervantino (2015). Ryu won a Gold Medal at the Rookies’ Competition for Contemporary Dance (2013), and 3rd Place at the Berlin Tanz Olympic Competition.

Ryu joined Bereishit Dance Company in 2014 and has traveled to India, China, and the United States with the company.

DONG-SIK LIM, MUSICIAN SUNG-GUN PARK, MUSICIAN SEO-HEE LEE, VOCALIST

SO-YEON KIM, DANCER So-Yeon Kim studied contemporary dance at Hansung University and works with Gigu Dance Theatre and Bereishit Dance Company as a performer and choreographer. Kim has performed at the Rookies’ Competition for Contemporary Dance (2012), The International Festival of Art (2013), Attakkalari India Biennale (2015), and Dance Salad Festival (2015), as well as other international venues. Kim joined Bereishit Dance Company in 2013 and has traveled to Brazil, China, India, the United States, and Uruguay with the company.

Dong-Sik Lim, Sung-Gun Park and Seo-Hee Lee perform with traditional Korean artists as guest musicians. They have performed with Bereishit Dance Company in ten Korean cities as well as at Festival Internacional Cervantino.

DA-SOM LEE, DANCER Da-Som Lee studied contemporary dance at Hansung University and works with Gigu Dance Theatre and Bereishit Dance Company as a performer and choreographer. Lee participated in the International Collaboration Project for MODAFE (2010), the European Dance Festival of Contemporary Dance in Poland (2011), Attakkalari India Biennale (2013, 2015), and Dance Salad Festival (2015). Lee joined Bereishit Dance Company in 2012 and has traveled to Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uruguay with the company.

JI-SOO RYU, DANCER Ji-Soo Ryu studied contemporary dance at Hansung University and works with Gigu Dance Theatre and Bereishit Dance Company as a performer and choreographer. Ryu has performed at the Attakkalari India Biennale (2014), Dance Salad Festival (2015) and 5

Contact Website: bereishitdance.com

Tour Booking Information: For booking information, contact Lotus Arts Management, Sophie Myrtil-McCourty, President 72–11 Austin Street, Suite 371 Forest Hills, NY 11375 USA Tel : 347. 721. 8724 Email : Sophie@lotusartsmgmt.com Website: lotusartsmgmt.com 2020-21 Season (Virtual) Home Series

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2020-21 Season (Virtual) Home Series