Latest news with #MarcosMorau
Korea Herald
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Interview: Marcos Morau's strange and beautiful worlds
Marcos Morau, one of Spain's most compelling contemporary choreographers, has straddled contradictions: innocence and critique, humor and darkness, elegance and unease. "I'm still feeling like I'm a kid," said Morau in a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday. "I like to create things that are a mix of innocence and humor, but also darkness and a criticism (of how we live)." Three of Morau's works arrive in Seoul this May, each a portal into his rich, often bizarre imagination. The choreographer was chosen for GS Arts Center's inaugural curated Artist Series, along with South African visual artist and director William Kentridge. After the recent performance of 'Afanador' (April 30-May 1), the next chapter begins with 'Pasionaria' (May 16-18) and 'Totentanz: Morgen ist die Frage' (May 17-18) with his own interdisciplinary company, La Veronal, a club of artists active in dance, film, literature and photography. 'Pasionaria,' dystopian planet void of passion Premiered in 2018, 'Pasionaria' introduces a fictional planet bearing the same name — a hyper-advanced world where passion and all other emotions have vanished. 'There was a moment in my life where I became obsessed with the idea of the absence of emotions,' said Morau. 'You can enjoy it as a video game or as a joke. But you can also feel sadness in a depressive allegory of our lives. That's the beauty of it: how the piece transforms your point of view, and how your point of view transforms the piece.' In this allegorical work, Morau explores how humans confront, or fail to confront, the void left by this emotional erosion. 'We no longer look at each other, we don't speak to one another. We live in isolation,' he said. 'Individuality has become stronger than community. This piece is a critique of that way of living. But at the same time, we are part of this system. We can't change it.' Morau encouraged audiences to pay close attention to how the body is used 'in a complex, bizarre way,' he noted. Dancer Angela Boix of La Veronal added the performance as being 'half human, half android.' 'We were looking to cut the body into as many pieces as we could. There was a sense of restriction, we were not so free. The movement became compact.' 'Dancing with death' If 'Pasionaria' imagines a world drained of emotion, "Totentanz," also known as Dance of Death, confronts the one fate that unites us all. 'As both a creator and a human being, we are all curious about death — the idea of it, the disappearing,' said Morau. 'Death is democratic because everyone is going to 'dance with death.' It doesn't matter who you are in life; in the end, we're all together.' With 'Totentanz,' his latest creation with La Veronal, premiered in 2024, Morau explores how death appears in society and how we often look away. The piece transforms the stage — this time, the lobby of GS Arts Center — into a dark, dreamlike space where the boundary between the living and the beyond begins to blur. Four performers engage in a strange, ritualistic performance, using fragmented gestures, extreme postures, and dynamic interactions to channel the emotional spectrum of mortality. 'One thing that is quite liberating as a dancer is that you feel like you are just one layer of many layers,' said Boix. 'You don't have this pressure that everything relies on you, because you are supported by the piece itself, by the music, by the scenography and all the artists in the company. You are just putting yourself as one more piece of this big engine.' hwangdh@
Korea Herald
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
‘Afanador,' flamenco reinvented, comes to Seoul
GS Arts Center's 'Artists' series spotlights Marcos Morau's genre-defying work When we think of flamenco, certain images spring to mind: a dancer in a vivid, ruffled dress with skirt flying outward in a whirl of motion; sharp, dramatic arm movements and hands twisting elegantly through the air; heeled shoes striking the wooden floor in a rapid-fire rhythm of castanets. But the Ballet Nacional de Espana's "Afanador," created in high-profile collaboration with Spanish contemporary choreographer Marcos Morau, offers a stark departure from these familiar images. Premiered in 2023, it stands out as one of BNE's latest and most daring major productions -- flamenco rendered in stark black and white, with sweeping ensemble scenes that evoke avant-garde and high-fashion imagery. Extravagant and born from the beauty of light and shadow, it offers a highly theatrical and deliberately distorted vision of the traditional form. "It was like encountering an entirely new world," Ruben Olmo, the artistic director of BNE, said in Spanish during a press conference on Monday at the GS Arts Center in Seoul. "Through our collaboration with Marcos Morau, we sought to bring a new form to Spanish dance. Morau and his company, La Veronal, possess an exceptionally unique dance language. By blending their language with flamenco, we wanted to present audiences with a different universe." Founded in 1978, BNE is Spain's national dance company dedicated to preserving and evolving the country's dance heritage, including escuela bolera, flamenco, academic, stylized and regional folk dances. Since 2019, the company has been led by Olmo, who has emphasized both honoring tradition and pushing creative boundaries. The work draws inspiration from Colombian photographer Ruven Afanador's black-and-white photography collections "1000 Kisses" (2009) and "The Men of Flamenco" (2014), which capture dancers against the stark, searing light and deep shadows of Andalusia. In these collections, dancers often appear in avant-garde haute couture or even nude, offering a surreal, boundary-pushing vision of flamenco. Building on Afanador's surreal imagery, Morau and BNE approached "Afanador" as a creative dialogue between photography and dance. Onstage, some 30 dancers pose as if for a photograph in a studio-like setting. At times, they seem to become part of the picture itself; at others, the space transforms into something resembling a bullring. The dancers sculpt static or dynamic, geometric forms, moving fluidly between stillness and explosive energy. Creative team and dancers alike acknowledged the production's challenges. Miguel Angel Corbacho, associate director and choreographer, recalled, "We had to step outside the framework of Spanish dance as we had learned it from childhood. These were movements that didn't belong to the traditional canon. It was dynamic, energetic but demanding extreme precision at the same time." Principal dancer Inmaculada Salomon echoed the sentiment: "It was a collision of the flamenco world and contemporary dance, and every part of the process was a challenge," she said. "The way we worked with Morau was completely different from the methods we were used to at the company. It required leaving behind the universe each of us had built. But it was an opportunity for growth -- both for the company and for us as individuals." Among the performers is Korean dancer Youn Sou-jung, a corps de ballet member and the first Asian dancer to join BNE in 2019. "It's my first time performing in Korea with the company. I'm thrilled to be able to perform here,' said Youn. She described Afanador as a fresh and striking take on flamenco. "In Spanish dance, we don't usually use the neck as much, but working with Morau, I remember feeling pain from how much neck movement was involved." She added, "It's a production that requires dancers to perform ensemble pieces in very tight spaces, so we had to be very careful about breathing and coordination." The BNE will perform "Afanador" three times, from Tuesday to Thursdat, at the GS Arts Center. The performance is part of the newly inaugurated GS Arts Center's flagship 'Artists' series spotlighting two to three multidisciplinary creators each year for an in-depth exploration of their work. This year, the featured artists are Spanish choreographer-director Morau and South African visual artist and theater-maker William Kentridge. 'Afanador' is one of three Morau works to be presented at the GS Arts Center this spring. The others include 'Pasionaria' (May 16-18) and "Totentanz -- Morgen ist die Frage" (also known as "Dance of Death"). Morau will visit Seoul for performances in May.
Korea Herald
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
GS Arts Center in Seoul to open April with American Ballet Theatre show
Located in former LG Arts Center in southern Seoul, new performing arts center to focus on interdisciplinary artists 'GS Arts Center is looking for its audience,' said Sunny Park, CEO of the soon-to-open GS Arts Center, at a press conference on Tuesday. The new performing arts venue, poised to raise its curtain in April, occupies the former home of LG Arts Center Yeoksam, which relocated to Magok in 2022. It is housed within GS Tower, near Yeoksam Station in Seoul's Gangnam District. With a remodeling budget of 32 billion won ($22 million), the venue has slightly expanded its seating capacity from 1,103 to 1,211 and upgraded backstage facilities, all while preserving the center's core structure. American Ballet Theatre will open the new GS Arts Center April 24-27 with "American Ballet Theatre: From Classic to Contemporary," which combines two mid-length ballets with gala-style excerpts, offering the audience a diverse repertoire. All five Korean dancers at the company -- principal dancers Seo Hee and Ahn Joo-won, soloists Park Sun-mi and Han Sung-woo and Seo Yoon-jung from the corps de ballet -- will join ABT's 13 other principal dancers for the performances. William Kentridge, Marcos Morau for curated series The key initiative of the GS Arts Center's programming is its annual "Artists" series spotlighting two to three multidisciplinary creators each year for an in-depth exploration of their work. Blurring the boundaries between music, dance, theater and media art, the series will showcase artists whose work defies categorization, offering audiences a multidimensional experience. 'We hope this will be more than just a venue. We want it to be a space that shapes the flow of contemporary culture,' Park said. 'We seek to present artists in a way that highlights not only their artistic imagination but also how their experiences and ideas intersect across genres.' South African visual artist and director William Kentridge and Spanish contemporary choreographer Marcos Morau are leading the inaugural edition, both known for their genre-defying, interdisciplinary work. One of the world's foremost contemporary artists, Kentridge is known for his work across charcoal drawings, prints, sculpture, opera and tapestry. Two of his quintessential productions will soon arrive in Seoul. "Sibyl" is set to run May 9-10. It will include a short film with live music, "The Moment Has Gone," and the visually striking chamber opera "Waiting for the Sibyl." "Oh To Believe in Another World: Shostakovich 10," which combines Kentridge's signature visuals with Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, will be staged May 30. Marking the 50th anniversary of the composer's passing. The production will feature a live performance by the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Three works by choreographer Morau, who creates worlds and imaginary landscapes where movement and image converge and transform into one another, are coming to Seoul, also in May. The Ballet Nacional de Espana's "Afanador," slated for April 30–May 1, blends traditional flamenco with contemporary staging and black-and-white photography-like mise-en-scene. "Pasionaria," scheduled for May 16-18, a hallmark of Morau's visionary imagination, will be performed by his dance company La Veronal, while "Totentanz – Morgen ist die Frage" (also known as "Dance of Death") starts at GS Arts Center's lobby May 17-18, extending it into an immersive art space. Ballet, jazz and musicals The GS Arts Center will also collaborate with the Korean National Ballet on the Kylian Project in June, a triple bill of Czech choreographer Jiri Kylian's 'Forgotten Land,' 'Falling Angels' (Korean premiere) and Sechs Tanze." In addition, the Seoul Jazz Festival will bring a theater edition to the venue, presenting jazz legends such as Pat Metheny, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride and Marcus Gilmore in an intimate indoor setting. Looking ahead to the fall season, the Broadway musical "The Great Gatsby" arrives in late July. The musical, which premiered last year and is set for London's West End in April, is produced by the Korean production company, OD Company. Additionally, the Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of "Life of Pi" will be staged in November.
