Korean choreographers teach University of Hawaii students for upcoming show

Two renowned choreographers from Korea National University of Arts, or K’ARTS, spent two weeks at the University of Hawaii at Manoa to help students in the College of Arts, Languages and Letters with their biggest public performance of the year.

Jae Hyuk Jung and Samjin Kim, who were brought to UH with a $10,000 grant awarded by the National Endowment of the Arts, trained students on two special routines that will be included in the upcoming performance called “Form Within a Form: Echoes and Reverberations.”

“Kim and Jung create new choreography with a cross-genre style that encompasses elements from Korean indigenous, traditional and contemporary dance,” said Kara Jhalak Miller, director of the performance. “It’s also an opportunity to experience many different movement genres in one place.”

Miller is also director of dance at UH Manoa and associate chair of the Department of Theater and Dance.

While K’ARTS and UH have a long relationship that predates Miller’s time at the university, in 2018 she traveled to Korea to teach choreography to K’ARTS students. The schools intended to gather their students at UH in 2020 to perform together, but those plans were derailed by COVID-19.

Nonetheless, Miller and her students were thrilled to host the two guest instructors.

“To have the opportunity to learn from artists who are working internationally and blending cross-genre styles of movement — that was super exciting,” Miller said. “Students would have that opportunity to connect and be exposed to these new choreographies with specific Korean contexts.”

Jung and Kim did their residency from Aug. 26 to Sept. 9, during which UH students underwent intensive training. The students continue to practice under their guidance over Zoom.

Miller describes the performance as diverse, nurturing and a deep investigation of the creative process. The performance will also include various genres of dance, including Bollywood and hip-hop.

“We wanted our return to the theater to bring one another together to be nurturing, nourishing, sustaining and just transformative,” Miller said. “We wanted to explore how we listen with our bodies to our environment and to one another.”

Kim’s dance style utilizes breathing techniques and improvisation, while Jung utilizes repetitive movements as a method of combining contemporary and traditional Korean dance, Miller said.

Having the opportunity to teach her techniques to UH students was refreshing, Kim wrote in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. She automatically incorporates her breathing techniques into daily life and hopes that her students will continue to find ways to embrace the learned technique.

“Until I worked with the students, the breathing of our dance was so normal and routine for me,” Kim wrote. “I was happy to see the sparkling eyes of students who understood my intention of the piece, discovered it in their own way and empathized with my choreography.”

Jung was impressed to see the students commit so much of their personal time to practicing. He said he hopes UH students will eventually be able to travel to Korea to produce and perform alongside students at K’ART.

During their residency, the two also taught a handful of workshops and master classes, and held an informal showing of the performance. The latter allowed the public to be actively involved in the creative process, while contributing to the theme of nourishment, Miller said.

“We wanted people in our audiences to engage along the way so that the audience could see, hear, taste, feel and have a conversation with the dancers and ask questions,” she said.

The performance will feature 60 graduate and undergraduate dancers while showcasing original compositions from Keith Cross, Takuma Itoh and John Signor, and media art by Larry Asakawa. Choreography from other local artists and UH Manoa faculty, including Miller, Sai Bhatawadekar, Ka‘ohinani Yojo Daniels, Betsy Fisher, Amy Schiffner and Jonathan Clarke Sypert, will also be included.

Several performances are scheduled to take place Nov. 11-20 with ticket prices ranging from $8 to $25. Tickets can be purchased at the UH athletics website (bit.ly/3BFf1PG).

Miller said she hopes that the unique and beautiful dance performances will inspire audiences to start conversations and offer more support to one another.

“Dance has the power to transform and uplift us at a time when there has been so much tragedy because of the pandemic,” Miller said. “And so that transformation occurs when we can be fully present in our bodies and be engaging with one another.”

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