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Korea Herald
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
‘Five Vibe' dances on overdrive with tradition, EDM and sweat-soaked power
Charged with raw physicality, 20 male dancers clad in cargo jumpsuits deliver a performance that bites with a steely, industrial edge. Choreographed by Ye Hyo-seung, the National Dance Company's latest production, 'Five Vibe' — which premiered Thursday and runs through Sunday — feels like a cyberpunk fever dream set in a desert. It fuses traditional Korean breathwork and bodily control, resulting in an exhilarating collision of past and future. This also marks a first in the company's 63-year-history: an all-male cast in a genre traditionally centered on female performers. The production highlights the groundedness, power and physicality of male bodies in Korean dance. 'In creating this piece, I wanted to bring the gravitational pull of the body to the stage -- to use acrobatic movement to unleash the full energy of the human form,' Ye said in an interview with The Korea Herald last week. The result is a full-throttle, high-adrenaline spectacle, most of it driven by a rapid tempo. Sweat pours as the dancers vault, roll and plunge across the stage with relentless momentum. The backdrop of a towering wall of speakers pulsates with cyber-industrial energy, conjuring a techno-dystopian future where rhythm and human resilience are equally under pressure. The soundscape, crafted live on stage by music director Song Kwang-ho, melds the visceral thrum of traditional percussion with the synthetic pulse of EDM. 'Five Vibe' is Ye's attempt to distill and reimagine what he considers the five essential elements of Korean dance: line, jangdan (rhythmic cycles), breath, heung (joyous energy) and time. Among them, breath serves as the work's conceptual spine. 'I see breath as the core element of dance,' Ye explained. 'Just as painters use brushes or pens, I use breath to sketch shapes with the body. I may not perform traditional Korean dance per se, but that breath is essential to every dancer.' So there are moments of pause. Ye creates space for a quieter kind of expression: slow, controlled gestures drawn from the vocabulary of traditional Korean dance. A longtime member of the Belgian contemporary company Les Ballets C de la B since 2005, Ye has more recently made a name for himself as an art director for global brands including Hermes, Cartier and Nike. 'I've lived and worked abroad for many years, but it's made me reflect more deeply on what it means to be Korean,' he said. 'I don't see tradition and modernity as separate -- they always intersect. I wanted to present something deeply Korean using the most modern language available.'
Korea Herald
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
'Beauty' paints new portrait of Korean aesthetics
Star-studded creative team of Leenalchi composer, Vogue Korea stylist and aespa music video art director join forces for National Dance Company's new project Throughout history, art has captured the essence of beauty as it evolves over time. In Korea, when one thinks of the traditional concept of beauty in art, Miindo ("Portrait of a Beauty") by Sin Yun-bok -- believed to have been painted between the late 18th and early 19th centuries -- often comes to mind. Over the centuries, the depiction of women's beauty has evolved, and today, a new interpretation is set to take the stage. "Beauty," a fresh production by the National Dance Company of Korea running from Thursday to Sunday, reimagines the classical aesthetics of Korean beauty for 2025. During an open rehersal for the press on Wednesday afternoon, 29 female dancers transformed the stage into a kaleidoscope of movement and color. The scene was more than a performance -- part fashion show and part music video -- infused with bold energy of contemprorary reinterpretations of hanbok, Korean traditional attire. In the final part for talchum, flowing fabrics in eclectric hues swayed with every step, their vibrant pinks, yellows, oranges, greens and blues accentuated by matching wigs. The rhythmic pulse of drums and the high-energy beat of music set the tone, fusing tradition with the modern edge. At times, the dancers resembled mischievous "dokkaebi," or Korean goblins, whirling through playful, chaotic celebration. "We aim to present a new vision of beauty -- not just the classical ideal seen in Sin Yun-bok's painting, but also the many forms of beauty that exist in contemporary times," said director Yang Jung-woong in a recent press conference at the National Theater of Korea in central Seoul. "We've assembled traditional dances in ways that haven't been seen before in our repertoire. With staging, bold costumes and music, 'Beauty' offers a feast for the senses," said Yang. "It will be a complete artistic package, something both visually and aurally captivating." "Beauty" reinterprets 11 traditional Korean dances, including "ganggangsulae," a circle dance; a sword dance; a fan dance; and a drum dance, through a bold fusion of classic movements and contemporary staging. The result is faster, more dynamic and powerfully choreographed, transforming these age-old forms into something strikingly new. All-female cast brings bold, dynamic energy "Beauty" brings together a star-studded creative team led by director Yang, whose career spans theater, film, musicals and the opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Choreographer Jung Bo-kyung, who appeared as a mentor on Mnet dance survival program "Stage Fighter," is at the helm of the movement, infusing traditional Korean dance with a contemporary sensibility. "The National Dance Company is a place where future classics are born," said choreographer Jung. "I wanted to explore how we perceive and interpret folk dance today. Through variations in movement, we deconstructed and reconstructed aesthetic concepts to find a new direction for dance." Jung described "Beauty" as a production that questions contemporary perceptions of Korean aesthetics. "It's a work that asks, 'How should we view our own concept of beauty?' I hope audiences pay close attention to how we have reinterpreted Korea's most well-known dances." The 60-minute show features an all-female cast, subtly challenging conventional folk dance structures. For instance, the "talchum" (mask dance), historically performed by male dancers, will be staged even without traditional masks while maintaining other aspects such as the long, flowy sleeves and hems. The reimagined talcum is inspired by premodern carnivals, according to the choreographer. "Personally, I want to show the audience just how powerful and captivating female dancers can be," Jung added. Leenalchi composer, Vogue Korea stylist and K-pop's go-to art director Jang Young-gyu, the renowned musician behind countless dance productions and a key member of the alternative pop band Leenalchi, translates movement into sound, giving the choreography an auditory depth. Meanwhile, Seo Young-hee, a veteran stylist who has shaped K-fashion for over 30 years at Vogue Korea, oversees costume and object design. "My goal was to create costumes that align with the choreographer's vision," Seo said. "Jung's decision to perform the fan dance without floral patterns and the mask dance without masks was incredibly fresh. It made me rethink how far we could deconstruct and reinterpret hanbok." The production's visual identity is further enhanced by art director Shin Ho-seung, known for his work on music videos for top K-pop acts like aespa, NCT 127 and IVE. His stage design incorporates a 6.5-meter-wide air balloon to symbolize the balance of yin and yang, along with a 26-meter fabric installation and scroll-like LED projections that create a bold yet minimalist aesthetic. Director Yang described the stage as 'the pinnacle of mise-en-scene.' He explained that the production will offer a visually spectacular and vividly colorful display.
