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Home : Program : Dance |
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ARIRANG ARARIYO – LOVESICKNESS - Korea
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| Time : |
Nov 11(Wed) 20:00
Nov 12(Thu) 20:00 |
| Venue : |
Sejong Center M Theatre |
| Ticket Price : |
General R : 30,000 won, S : 20,000 won
Y/S R : 15,000 won, S : 10,000 won |
| Duration : |
60 min (No Interval) |
| Choreographer : |
Kyungshil Choi |
| Company : |
Choi Kyung Shil Spring Dance Theatre |
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- Arirang Arirang Seuri Seurirang Arariyo. My dear love, my dearest love, my longing for you has made me lovesick.
- We have 'Arirang' in our blood. Arirang is about a beautiful person, a dearest love, a longing for human essence, and a longing for peace and freedom. |
'Arirang' is like the hometown of our mind
'Arirang' is like the hometown of our mind. It has been handed down over the past thousands or at least hundreds of years in Korea without us knowing the full meaning or origin of 'Arirang'. This is because the old word of 'Arirang' contains a delicate aura that cannot be fully translated into modern language. The sound and meaning of 'Arirang' and 'Arariyo' form a delicate balance of rhythm. The phrase, 'Arirang Arirang Arariyo', can be roughly translated as "My dear love, my dearest love, I long for you." "Ari Arirang Seuri Seurirang" can be understood as "My dear love, my dearest love, (my longing for you) you are making me lovesick." The piece deals with the love and separation of a pair of lovers through the tribulations in the lives of ordinary people. 'Arirang' in this dance piece signifies a beautiful person, a dear lover, a longing for nature in modern society, a longing for human essence, a longing for a remedy for a unilateral society and lifestyle, and a longing for peace and freedom from power, oppression and violence. Loaded with our series of longings, we eventually fall sick. 'Arirang' essentially refers to 'people' and the existence of Arirang elements within us is bound to be revealed through bodily movements. This work is a real festival of love-sickness.
Only time will tell. This is what is life all about. C'est la vie, C'est la vie...
There is no end in sight along the road. Time that has stopped temporarily starts to tick once a breath is taken. Words that need to be delivered remain buried under the sand of time amid misunderstandings and shifting in the waves of the social system.
The seasons return every year. Women are suffering from love-sickness.
Starting with a soft beginning, having come down from the world of passion, the feelings of meltdown between you and me, your world and mine, humans and nature build up from the foolish emotions of love. In the name of love, we desire, we hurt each other, we embrace each other to laugh and to weep.
C'est la vie. Before one opens the lid, one cannot be sure of the taste. Whether it is water or alcohol. Only time can tell. This is what life is all about. C'est la vie, c'est la vie.
Arirang Arariyo – Arirang, Seurirang, the feelings of pain and stinging. Pleasure and pain interweave to create the source of life as well as the future and hope.
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This piece addresses the questions, 'Why do we want to dance and what kind of dance do we want to show at this time, on this land?' by expressing, 'the here, the now, we and I' in bodily movements.
Our traditions are so deeply immersed in the everyday lives of ordinary people that they cannot be easily grasped. We work, we play, we carry out ceremonies for our elders, and pay our respects at funerals etc. But why do we do all these things? And why do we find ourselves moving from one Karaoke to another aimlessly?
I want to show my dance, our dance. I want to draw the long-forsaken tradition closer toward me and toward us. Arirang is embedded within the Korean sentiment in every tune and phrase to the extent that it is the hometown of our mind and source of our strength. At times, Arirang has been closer to the sound of pleas and lamentation and at other times, that of resistance and criticism. The intention behind this piece was to turn our traditional sentiment into our own movements in order to draw out some of the most urgent issues facing us today and to allow us to contemplate upon such matters together.
Selected for financial support by the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation in 2008, it premiered at the Euijeongbu Arts Center on November 5 and 6, 2008. It was named Best Arrangement in Dance by PAF (Performance and Review). In April 2009, it was presented at international dance festivals in the Middle Eastern cities of Beirut, Amman, Jerusalem, Haifa and Ramalla. It received critical acclaim as a contemporary piece for expressing the wide range of Korean sentiments including joy, sorrow and love.
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| Choreographer |
Choi Kyung-Shil has been working on themes of human self-reflection, human relationship and social issues capitalizing on the Eastern framework of thinking and philosophy. On the basis of her dedicated spirit and creativity, she has received much attention as a choreographer. She has been able to draw out things that have not been noticed before and things that have remained dormant in the unconscious as themes for her dance and she expresses them in unfettered yet restrained body language.
Choi graduated from both undergraduate and graduate courses at the Department of Dance at Kyunghee University. She received her doctorate degree from Dongduk Women's University. She was a teacher at Sookmyung Junior High and lecturer at Kyunghee University. Currently, she is a representative of the Spring Dance Theatre, member of the Seoul Contemporary Dance Company, and lecturer at Dongduk Women's University. She was selected as New Choreographer by ARKO in 2001 and placed third at the 4th Choreographers Festival the same year. More recently, Choi was recognized by PAF for Composition of Dance of the year in both 2007 and 2008. |
| Company |
Choi Kyung-Shil formed the company in 2000. Ever since, it has been involved in creating pieces for performances in Korea and abroad. It has taken part in various festivals including the 4th Choreographers Festival, 7th Critics Choreography Festival, Our Music and the World, International Dance Media Performance, "Consciousness and Dance" recommended by the Korea Society of Aesthetics in Korea. It has also been active abroad with runs at the 4th Dusseldorf International Dance Fair, Korea-Japan Dance, Osaka Dance Fair, Winterthur Municipal Theater in Switzerland, Three Choreographers from Korea in Berlin, BOSQ Cultural Center in Mexico City, and a tour of the Middle Eastern cities of Beirut, Amman, Jerusalem, and Ramalla, among others.
The company aims to seek both artistic merit and popular acclaim through concentrated analytic works that are free from constraints of space and form. Such efforts are pursued to raise the audience base. The company is known for its dynamic and explosive yet sensitive and lyrical pieces of dance. |
Review
In this piece, Arirang is about a beautiful person and a dear person. A man and a woman fly high in the sky, burning with the sentiment of love. Pleasure and pain are our eternal companions in life.
- Jung Soon-Young, Dance, December 2008, p. 86
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