Returning for its eighth year with 17-strong ensemble headliner and a live rock band.
A Festival of Korean Dance is returning for its eighth year, bringing five companies to the UK including Korea’s premier dance company, Korea National Contemporary Dance Company (KNCDC), who will be headlining with the festival’s largest show to date with a company of 17 dancers. London favourite Modern Table will combine Shakespeare with traditional Korean song and a live rock band, and festival favourite Melancholy Dance return with a show exploring falling following last year’s Flight. The festival is completed by two shows using video: one to explore the gap between different dimensions in a returning show from Choi x Kang Project, and one creating a sensory interplay between the natural and the artificial a UK debut from Ji-hye Chung. The festival is presented by the Place and the Korean Cultural Centre UK.
Jungle by Korea National Contemporary Dance Company
7 & 8 May - The Place, London
- A seventeen-strong company gathers onstage for an extraordinary spectacle of vitality. Based on ‘Process Init’, an unconventional movement research method developed by Korea National Contemporary Dance Company’s artistic director Sung-young Kim, Jungle is full of wildly instinctive movements which expand and unfurl, rich with the energy of survival.
Kontemporary Korea Double bill: 0g (zero grams) by Melancholy Dance Company & A Complementary Set_Disappearing with An Impact by Choi x Kang Project
9 May - Pavilion Dance South West and 15 May - Dance City
- 0g utilises the principle of ‘free fall movement’ to uncover the meaning of life anew within monotonous daily routines.
A Complementary Set_Disappearing with an Impact
- Choi x Kang Project’s experimental piece uses video and performance to explore the gap between different dimensions.
Double bill: 0g (Zero grams) by Melancholy Dance Company & Shinsegae by Jihye Lee
13 May - The Place, London
0g (Zer0gram)
- Inspired by the repetitive and seemingly pointless actions of the mythical figure Sisyphus, 0g utilises the principle of ‘free fall movement’ to uncover the meaning of life anew within monotonous daily routines.
Shinsegae
- A lecture-style solo performance which dissects our most unconscious everyday activity - the act of walking.
Ham:beth by Modern Table
20 May Lowry and 23 & 24 May The Place London
- Boy-band meets Shakespearean drama in this energetic all-male show by Modern Table. Eight dancers in slick suits battle against the pressure to conform.
Further Information: A Festival of Korean Dance 2025 | KCCUK