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Home : Program : Dance |
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Rose (The Rite of Spring) & Mating Dance (Bolero) - Korea
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| Time : |
Nov 17(Tue) 20:00
Nov 18(Wed) 20:00 |
| Venue : |
Sejong Center M Theatre |
| Ticket Price : |
R : 30,000 won
S : 20,000 won |
| Duration : |
75 min (20 min Interval) |
| Choreographer : |
Sungsoo Ahn |
| Company : |
Sungsoo Ahn Pick-up Group |
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Ahn Sung-Soo and the Grande Dance of the 20th Century. Music for the Eyes and Dance for the Ears |
Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Maurice Ravel’s Bolero which go back to the early 20th century, more than one hundred years ago, have been interpreted in a new light by a choreographer of the 21st century, Ahn Sung-Soo.
Rose, based on music from I. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, was completed in July 2009 after two years of work that began in January 2008. Produced by Arko Arts Theater, it portrays the rite a primitive tribe using tarot cards.
In the meantime, Mating Dance, based on music from M. Ravel’s Bolero, is the updated version of Ahn Sung-Soo Pickup Group’s major series ‘Bolero Series’ which visually portrays the mating of animals unlike the previous dance series.
Act 1. Rose_Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring
The return of the spring rite with every coming spring season. Young female dancers are praising the earth in their circle dance, which will determine the selected. This year, men also want to take part in the circle dance. The wise man asks the oracle who then allows men to take part. A man is chosen to be sacrificed. Since the earth symbolizes the female, the tribe realizes that sacrificing a male would be better to enrich the earth.
Act 2. Mating Dance_Ravel’s Bolero
Animals are full of instinct. This makes them very agile.
Their agility reaches an apex during mating season. By instinct, they dance to lure each other.
Females are particularly picky. They choose only the best among the males during the mating season. At times, their fickleness makes mating only a dream.
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Act 1. Rose_Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring
Igor Stravinsky composed The Rite of Spring in 1913 for the Ballet Russe. The first choreographer was Vaslava Nijinsky and later, Mashin assumed the role. It was originally composed as a dance piece, but Stravinsky believed that it was better suited for performance rather than as a dance piece after seeing the choreographed dance. Why? There were numerous reasons but at that time, choreographers found it difficult to phrase the structure of music into movement. The Rite of Spring was full of shifts in unexpected tempos and uneven length of phrasing, among others, which made it musically difficult as a structure to be fully understood. Besides, dance required a plot. At first, Stravinsky added a plot to the music of The Rite of Spring. However, this was done by simply adding a title under each theme. For that reason, choreographers at the time found it hard to come up with a plot suitable for the ballet dance. In the end, Stravinsky remained dissatisfied with the dance itself even though he composed the music for it. Rose is intended by Ahn Sung-Soo to show The Rite of Spring that remains true to the music by Stravinsky and creates a feast for the eyes.
Act 2. Mating Dance_Ravel’s Bolero
As an extension of the Bolero Series, Mating Dance has been reworked into a 2009 version that makes it more colorful, brighter in tone and full of interesting movements.
Maurice Ravel composed bolero in 1928 for the dancer, Aida Rubenstein. Like I. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Bolero has become one of the most famous compositions by Ravel. It has been used by numerous choreographers and is still popular among choreographers. Even Ahn Sung-Soo has turned up eight different versions of Bolero over the past decade. It is also the most well known repertoire of the Ahn Sung-Soo Pickup Group, the ‘Korean’ version of Bolero.
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| Choreographer |
Artistic director, Ahn Sung-Soo is acknowledged as the most impressive dancer by critics and the world of dance armed with artistic sensitivity and perfectionism, he is the professional among professionals. On the basis of his exceptional musical sensibility, he has been presenting works with a high level of sensitivity and perfection using sophisticated and precise choreography and logical movements.
He has been active abroad with the Pickup Group formed in New York in 1991 in performances at the Joyce Theater, American Dance Festival, Central Park Summer Stage, Lincoln Center Outdoor Festival and the Dance Theater Workshop.
He was the recipient of numerous awards including Script Humphrey Wideman Limon Award for choreography, Bonny Bird North American Award (Laban Center in London), third prize at International Choreography in Japan, Critics Award for The Point in Korea in 2001, Best Dance by dance magazine, Body, for Choice in 2005 and Best Artist of the Year by ARKO in 2005. He was nominated for Benois de la danse, the Nobel Prize in dance, for Bolero in 2005 and presented the piece at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in April 2006.
<CV>
• B.F.A. at Juilliard
• David Howard Ballet Studio, Christine Wright Dance Studio
• Ex-member of Mary Luft Dance / Former member and choreographer of Ballet Randolph (Miami)
• Lecturer of dance at New World School of Arts (Miami) / Lecturer at Municipal Arts High School in New York
• Currently, professor at College of Dance, Korea National University of Arts/ Artistic Director of Ahn Sung-Soo Pickup Group |
| Company |
Ahn Sung-Soo established Ahn Sung-Soo Pickup Group in 1991 during his stint at Juilliard. He has worked with other dancers in New York, at the Joyce Theater, the Lincoln Center, Central Park Summer Festival and DTW. The group was terminated following its Seoul performance in 1996.
Members then got together again in Seoul in 1998 to study, dance and continually evolve with both seriousness and dedication.
Its choreographic capability has been acknowledged both in Korea and abroad with the group receiving a series of awards such as the Dance Critics Award for The Point in 2001, Artist of the Year and Best Dance of the Year by the dance magazine, Momm, for Choice in 2004, nomination for Best Artist of the Year and Grand Prix by ARKO in 2005 and Benois de la danse, the Nobel Prize in dance, Bolero in 2005. It was also presented at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 2006. |
Reviews
"This work is an example of Ahn Sung-Soo’s style in which he has chosen certain motions and evolves them in the piece. The logic in which movements follow the strength of musical notes has placed him in a leading position in terms of the Korean version of Bolero."
- April, 2005, Dance and People, Moon Ae-Ryeong
"Ahn Sung-Soo is a choreographer who is skilled at turning dance itself into a scientific piece of aesthetics. This makes his piece something to watch over and over again... A series of regular movements created by combining the inwardness and sexy energy of Ravel’s Bolero and the Korean sensibility…. Like a cook who is able to turn out dishes from a few ingredients, he has created a variety of movements by restructuring and reassembling elements. This makes Ahn Sang-Soo the most talented cook in dance."
- December 2005, Dance Forum, You In-Wha
Awards
2006 Benois de la danse (Russia) nominated for choreography award for Bolero
2005 Grand Prix for Dance at the Artist Awards of the Year for Choice
2005 Best Dance at the 12th Dance Art Awards
2002 6th Critics Award for The Point
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