AMBIGUOUS DANCE COMPANY’S
BORAM KIM
GWANTONG 18
WELCOME TO LONDON’S INTERNATIONAL THEATRE The Coronet Theatre is a reimagined architectural and design jewel, originally built as a grand Victorian Playhouse, now a pioneering home for international, cross-disciplinary arts. Curated by Artistic Director Anda Winters, over the past decade it has become a significant cultural landmark. Known for world and UK premieres, its mission is to bring artists and art forms from around the world, championing work that would not otherwise be seen. The programme enables access for diverse audiences to world-class theatre, dance, music, film and visual arts through co-productions, commissions, and invited works. Centrally situated in London’s Notting Hill, The Coronet has two main spaces: The Auditorium and The Print Room Studio. With the additional performances and exhibitions in the bar, the atmospheric upper rooms, and basements, the whole building is a living global showcase.
BORAM KIM GWANTONG 18 AN EXHILARATING DANCE SOLO. A BODY PUSHED TO ITS LIMIT. Encounter one of the most dynamic dance artists of the Korean Wave. Founder of Ambiguous Dance Company, Boram Kim, brings his darkly funny and physically demanding solo work for its one and only performance outside Korea. Requiring extraordinary stamina, emotional resilience, precision and vulnerability, Gwantong 18 is a jaw-dropping 70 minute solo that asks him to give everything. In eighteen parts, the work moves through humour, memory, exhaustion, and defiance, as this extraordinary dancer moves through a shifting landscape of objects from his life. “These Korean dancers are a force of nature. I love their audacity, their phenomenal energy and most of all, their wild, fantastic creativity… their stamina was truly awe inspiring” - Seeing Dance, Ambiguous Dance Company’s The Belt, 2024 Since their sold-out UK debut at The Coronet Theatre in 2022 with Body Concert, Ambiguous Dance Company has built a remarkable relationship with London audiences and critics, returning in 2023 with Rhythm of Human and in 2024 with the immersive, site-specific The Belt.
CAST & CREATIVE TEAM Choreographer & Performer:
Boram Kim
Assistant Choregraphy, Sound Operator & Guest Performer:
KyeongMin Jang
Lighting Design:
DaeDoo Bae
Stage Manager:
JaeMin Park
Tour Producer:
HeeJin Lee
In Association with:
Producer Group DOT
With the support of KOFICE (Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange)
BORAM KIM Choreographer and artistic director of Ambiguous Dance Company, Boram Kim brings together contemporary dance, hip-hop, street dance and ballet to create a distinctive style. His work begins with music – its sounds, rhythms and silences – and explores what the body can express before movement becomes dance. The result is an immediate, powerful connection with audiences.
AMBIGUOUS DANCE COMPANY Choreographer and artistic director of Ambiguous Dance Company, Boram Kim brings together contemporary dance, hip-hop, street dance and ballet to create a distinctive style. His work begins with music – its sounds, rhythms and silences – and explores what the body can express before movement becomes dance. The result is an immediate, powerful connection with audiences.
The Belt - Future, Ambiguous Dance Company The Coronet Theatre 2024
A CONVERSATION WITH BORAM KIM: Could you briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your background? I’m Boram Kim, Artistic Director of Ambiguous Dance Company. I founded the company in 2007 and have been working as both a choreographer and dancer ever since. Could you tell us about your approach to dance, your influences and your movement style? I began with hip-hop, commercial dance and street dance, working as a backup dancer. When I went to university, I studied contemporary dance, ballet, traditional Korean dance and tap. These days, I don’t confine myself to any particular genre. I think about the essence of dance and explore the many different things the body is capable of expressing. Could you briefly introduce Gwantong 18? Rather than thinking of Gwantong 18 as a choreographed work, I see it as a performance about the life I have lived through dance. Through the work, I try to discover who I am. It unfolds through eighteen different scenes. By following them, I hope the audience can join me in exploring the question: Who is Boram Kim?
What does the title Gwantong 18 mean to you? In Korean, the number eighteen is pronounced sip-pal. It sounds very similar to ssibal, one of the strongest swear words in Korean. When I encountered the work of the actor Choo Song-woong, my immediate and honest reaction was: “Ssibal.” That raw emotion became the starting point for this work. Why did you create a solo around the question: What does it mean to be a performer? For me, being on stage is a moment when I can step outside this world – outside the entirety of my everyday life – and exist completely as myself. On stage, I discover who I am through dance. My dancing might be no more than a monkey performing in a zoo, or it might move someone profoundly. This work is a journey to find myself somewhere between those two extremes. What happens to you, physically and mentally, during these seventy minutes? I haven’t experienced death yet. But if death were ever to stand before me, I imagine it might feel something like this. That is how I feel when I step onto the stage. Physically and mentally, I become completely present in that moment. All I can do is give everything I have.
You have performed this work before. Why did you decide to return to it now? I performed it around this time eight years ago. When it was over, I never wanted to do it again. But eight years later, I now feel that my body may never be able to do it again. So before it becomes too late, I wanted to challenge myself one final time. With the performances in Korea and at The Coronet Theatre in London, I am taking on my final solo challenge. The London performances will be the work’s first and final presentation abroad. What does “the final performance” mean to you? To me, an ending is also an expansion. This final performance is about going beyond the limits of what I can achieve physically, and setting out to discover another realm of dance. Finally, what do you hope will remain with the audience after the performance? This may sound abstract, but I have spent almost thirty years devoting myself entirely to dance. I exist on stage, and the people watching me are each present as individuals. I hope we can feel, somehow, that all of those separate beings are ultimately connected as one. I don’t know exactly how to make someone feel that. But at its core, this work is a search for something fundamental and profound: the meaning of our existence.
X AMBIGUOUS DANCE COMPANY
THE BELT - FUTURE (2024)
THE BELT PAST (2024)
BODY CONCERT (2022)
RHYTHM OF HUMAN (2023)
A DOUBLE BILL FROM TAIWAN’S D_ANTIDOTE PRODUCTION
NON ORDINARY SERVICES A UK PREMIERE FROM “THE MOST PROMISING CHOREOGRAPHER OF THE NEXT GENERATION”
AND THE RETURN OF EDINBURGH FRINGE SMASH-HIT
PALINGENESIS ★★★★
The List UK
★★★★
The Stage
★★★★
Broadway Baby
“LIFE IN ITS BAREST, MOST OOZING, ALIEN FORM.” (THE LIST UK)
ONE ARTIST. TWO AIS.
AN IMMERSIVE CONCERT GENERATED IN REAL TIME.
<FRANKENTACIT> TACIT GROUP
THE CORONET THEATRE TEAM Artistic Director & CEO Anda Winters
Box Office Assistant Ivana Dieli
Audience Experience Manager Giudi Di Gesaro
Duty Managers Francesca Battinieri, Annabelle Gardner, Joanna Papanastassiou, Aylin Rodoplu, Hazel Townsend
Company & Production Coordinator Emma Smith Consultant Producer Hetty Shand Finance Manager Andrew Michel Technical Manager Louis Williams Marketing Manager (Freelance) Elliot Hall Poetry Coordinator Marion Manning PR Consultant Sharon Kean Producer Daphne Seale Producing & Marketing Assistant Esme Bishop Theatre Administrator / PA to the Artistic Director Vihaan Chandy
Front of House Staff Matilda Badziak, Eugénie Bakker, Samya Bose-Rosling, Theo Chen, Stephanie Christodoulidou, Marcello Crisci, Merilee Ettia-Russell, Cheryl Fairon, Katrina Foster, Trey Francis, Thea Gavanski, Alessandra Gonnella, Hugo Gregg, Li Ikoku-Smith, Dane Kostic, Emma Laird-Craig, Maria Lisberg-Jonasson, Aija Miranda, Hamza Mullick, Andreane Rellou, Robert Veng, Kajsa Wiberg-Norquist Trustees Linda Bernhardt, Mike Fisher, Mimi Gilligan, Jane Quinn, Anda Winters, Bill Winters (Chair) Thank you to our patrons for their generous support: Honorary Trustee Mimi Gilligan Cupola Mike Fisher and T. S. Eliot Foundation Club Room Tom and Maarit Glocer, Julia and Scott Rochester, and Jane Quinn
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