The Seoul-based video and performance collaborators Hyung Su Kim and Hyo Jin Kim, who awed audiences at the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival, will present the U.S. premiere of their immersive piece Madame Freedom at REDCAT, CalArt's Downtown Center for Contemporary Arts on October 2-5, 2014.
A stirring fusion of live interactive dance and a sumptuous media installation that incorporates black-and-white footage from the classic 1956 Korean melodrama Jayu buin (Madame Freedom), this stage collaboration looks to the historical struggle of Korean women to break free of the social, economic and political constraints of yesteryear as it considers the uneasy contemporary legacy of hard-won changes nearly 60 years later. Today's Madame Freedom is a rumination on identity, myth, and the tension between dreams and the burdens of the past.Choreographed by Hyo Jin Kim, who co-directs the production with media artist Hyung Su Kim.Director and Choreographer Hyo Jin Kim was trained in traditional Korean dance from an early age and studied dance forms including ballet and modern dance at Ewha Womnas University, the most famous dance institution in Korea.Kim pursued her interest in contemporary Korean dance by joining the ChangMu Dance company from 1993 to 1997. Since 1995, she has developed an independent dance style which is combined with contemporary dance and Media Arts and is performed in theatres and galleries.Videos