Asking not “How” or “Why”, but “What If?”

Review of Kontemporary Korea at Dance City

Kontemporary Korea: A Double-Bill of K:Dance comes to Dance City as part of The Place’s Festival of Korean Dance, now in its eighth year. This double bill presented a wonderful contrast, but the pieces did share a strong kinship in their straight-faced comedy, high level of craft, and their ability to take simple, repeating concepts and explore them to the absolute fullest.

Opening with Choi x Kang Project’s A Complementary Set_Disappearing with an Impact, a little patience is required as two performers (Min-sun Choi and Jin-an Kang) repeat simple, gestural movements to a metronomic sound score by Yo-han Ko. Whilst the movement begins plainly, there is plenty to pique our interest; a brightly coloured circular rug, a large TV screen on a white box, and a third performer (Tae-kyung Kim) who appears to be filming the pair from downstage. The screen shows what appears to be a pre-recorded video of the same choreography, but all is not as it seems.

As the choreography loops and evolves in subtle ways, the previous iteration (filmed by Kim) plays on the screen - the camera’s movements revolve, zoom, and search for new angles, adding to the choreography as it unfolds: the viewer is shaping the work in real time, creating a playful duet between past and present. 

With each loop growing more absurd than the last, it is incredibly fun to watch. What at first appeared a little unrefined is revealed to be an incredibly slick and clearly well-rehearsed game; the live performers are in impressive synchronisation with their previously recorded selves, though seemingly fighting to attract our attention, with the camera’s perspective humourously woven into the movement. 

Props appear; strings, balls, crisp packets, and like a magician who is always one step ahead of their audience, the trio are in masterful control of the chaos. Nothing is off limits as one performer is chased along backstage corridors, doors are opened, curtains pulled, the camera giving us more and more new perspectives. As the footage drifts away from the dancers and zooms instead into a light, the performers vanish into darkness before pointing torches towards the chuckling audience - each new addition is a satisfying punch line.

Before we know it, the black box theatre space has been deconstructed before our very eyes, along with any preconceptions we had about performer, or performance. An inventive and enjoyable opening act.

Following an interval, and hungry for more, the innovation continues in 0g (zero grams) by Melancholy Dance Company. Choreographer Cheol-in Jeong again takes a simple concept, gravity, and pushes it to the extreme in increasingly virtuosic ways.

Opening with a brief solo, we first see how gravity can be defied with just an apple and some Michael Jackson-esque leaning shoes. Following this charming opening skit, we see gravity in action as a hand repeatedly falls and rebounds, first just one, then two, until the stage is taken over by five dancers in well-organised patterns of falling and catching. 

With growing momentum, bodies are flung and caught in ever more imaginative ways. Dynamic and daring, the performers show acrobatic skill layered with a beautiful naturalism, harnessing gravity and force with extreme precision. The dancers run in circles, bounce off each other, are pushed to the ground and hoisted overhead. They are rigorous yet relaxed, and despite the inherent danger in what they are doing, the piece feels calm, clean, and gratifying to watch.

The work evolves organically, and it feels as though everything is earnt: we enjoy repetitions until it is time for them to change, and we enjoy silence until it is time for music. Tae-kyung Choi’s sound lifts the energy at the perfect point in the work, providing a driving pulse as the movement continues to build. Folding, pressing, defying gravity, living sculptures emerge from swirling smoke. 

Throughout the piece there is a wonderful sense of boyish playfulness, constantly asking not “how” or “why”, but “what if”. An absolute treat for the imagination, I left the theatre feeling lifted, inspired, and satisfyingly entertained.

A Festival of Korean Dance 2025 continues on 20th May at Lowry, Salford and 23-24th May at The Place, London, with Ham:beth by Modern Table.