Kontemporary Korea is a double bill of contrasting works, introducing one of Korea’s leading choreographers Cheol-in Jeong who creates virtuosic and emotive works as Melancholy DanceCompany, and audience favourite Sung Im Her, offering her high energy and engaging personality to another edition of A Festival of Korean Dance.

TOMORROWISNOWTODAYISYESTERDAY (TINTIY) BY SUNG IM HER

Sung Im Her’sTiNTiY looks at the impact of (social) media on society as it focuses on oversharing, over-saturation and the bombardment of information, reflecting the physiological effects of this on the physical body. The work plays with the fun aspects of challenges, memes, skits and all manner of ‘entertaining content’ that is shared on these platforms, but counters this with the realities behind the facade. These darker undertones include an unending multitude of opinions, alternative truths and conspiracy theories, which create confusion, anxiety and perpetuate the unease and precarity faced in society.

Performed on a stage, where the starkness of its raw form is highlighted with only designed lighting and club like sounds composed by musical duo Husk Husk filling the space, three dancers perform overly produced gestures, as they move between their independent selves, into a shared entanglement and back again, blurring the lines of their individual and collective identities.

FLIGHT BY MELANCHOLY DANCE COMPANY

Flight aims to express the human desire to soar towards goals through leaps and falls. This virtuosic duet portrays the process of overcoming the limits of human capability, which one cannot conquer alone, through a complete flight shared by two individuals.