A well-established staple of the dance calendar, 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.
Dr. Seunghye Sun, Director of the Korean Cultural Centre UK, said “As the Director of the KCCUK, I am
delighted to co-host the 8th Festival of Korean Dance with five Korean companies. We are particularly excited to
see a wide variety of contemporary Korean dance performances in multiple cities across the UK as part of the
festival, further enriching the cultural connections between Korea and the UK.”
Double bill: 0g (Zero grams) by Melancholy Dance Company & Shinsegae by Ji-hye Chung
13 May The Place
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.
Melancholy Dance Company, founded by choreographer Cheol-in Jeong, plays with gravity through this
principle of ‘free fall’ and applies it to various parts of the body, experimenting with extreme situations and
dynamic movements, which are often dazzlingly virtuosic. 0g is the winner of the 2020 Dance Arts presented by
Chum (Dance), a monthly Korean magazine specialising in contemporary dance.
Choreographer Cheol-in Jeong
Performers Jisoo, Ryu, Gyungjae, Mun, Cheolin, Jeong, Youngsang, Ju and Joong Keun Jeon
Producer Minyoung Ki Sound Director Taehyun, choi
Shinsegae
A lecture-style solo performance which dissects our most unconscious everyday activity – the act of walking.
Shinsegae, which means ‘new world’ in Korean, distinctively incorporates video imagery to represent the
human body with a computer game, creating a sensory interplay between the natural and the artificial. Ji-hye
Chung encourages reflection on the evolution of walking and the function of bipedalism, offering us a chance to
discover a ‘shinsegae’ of walking.
Choreographer and performancer Ji-hye Chung Sound: Jundo
Lighting design: Sung-hee Yu Outside eye Lyon-eun Kwon
Game advisory Seung-back Shin Project management Seo-ha Kim
Kontemporary Korea Double bill: 0g (zero grams) by Melancholy Dance Company & A Complementary
Set_Disappearing with An Impact by Choi x Kang Project
15 May Dance City
0g (zero grams)
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. Melancholy Dance Company, founded by choreographer Cheol-in Jeong, plays with gravity through this principle of ‘free fall’ and applies it to various parts of the body, experimenting with extreme situations and dynamic movements, which are often dazzlingly virtuosic. 0g is the winner of the 2020 Dance Arts presented by Chum (Dance), a monthly Korean magazine specialising in contemporary dance.
Choreographer Cheol-in Jeong
Performers Ji-soo Ryu, Gyung-jae Mun, Cheol-in Jeong, Young-sang Ju and Joong-keun Jeon
Producer Min-young Kim
Sound director Tae-kyung Choi
A Complementary Set_Disappearing with an Impact
Are we able to control those outside of our gaze?
Choi x Kang Project’s experimental piece uses video and performance to explore the gap between different dimensions. Choreographers Minsun Choi and Jinan Kang focus on connecting with the body through multidisciplinary experiments and external devices, often drawing on collaborations with artists from other fields,
and finding humour in the gap between what we see and what we expect to see.
Images filmed live on stage, re-broadcast on a screen behind the performers, battle with their physical presence
for our attention. Sound becomes noise as it loses its power to exist as music, and theatre’s limitations are
tested and revealed.
Choreographers and performers Min-sun Choi and Jin-an Kang
Filmer and performer Tae-kyung Kim Scenographer Ro-wa Jeong
Music Yo-han Ko Stage manager Eun-jin Jo
Ham:beth by Modern Table
20 May Lowry
23 & 24 May The Place
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. Claiming their right to desire, their quests push them into becoming
lone heroes. Loosely inspired by depictions of madness in Hamlet and Macbeth, Ham:beth combines traditional
Korean songs with a live rock band to create a powerful gig atmosphere. Fast and furious choreography builds
the thrilling sensation of relentless energy, danger and emotional charge.
Modern Table is one of London’s favourite Korean dance companies, following brilliantly received performances
of Men of Steel at Greenwich & Docklands International Festival in 2017, and Velocity at The Place in 2019.
Choreographer and composer Jae-duk Kim
Performers Jae-duk Kim, Eo-reen Lee, Cheol-han Jeong, Sey-eong Eorm, Jun-seok Lee, Hyeong-kyu Choi
and Dong-gyu Kim
Musicians Suk-gui Yoon (Vocal), Seong-eun Heo (Drum), Chul-joo Huh (Guitar) and Hyun-soo Kim (Bass)
Light designer Jang-han Lee Sound director: Dong-jun Been
A Festival of Korean Dance was established in 2018 as part of the Korea/UK Season, and The Place and the
Korean Culture Centre UK have been partnered on the festival year on year. In 2025, the festival is presented
with support from Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE). The growing popularity of
the festival has coincided with the booming global success of the cultural phenomenon known as Hallyu – the
wave of Korean pop culture.
Over the span of seven remarkable years, the festival has proudly welcomed the participation of 24 esteemed companies, among them the prestigious Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, Art Project BORA, Modern Table, and Collective A. Together, they have presented a total of 26 dance pieces, accompanied by an impressive selection of 12 evocative dance films and documentaries.
For further information, please check out facebook.com/KCCUK
