Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival to Welcome Seoul-Based Bereishit Dance Company

Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival presents a rare U.S. appearance of Seoul-based Bereishit Dance Company, June 29-July 3 in the Doris Duke Theatre. The company makes its Pillow debut in a highly-physical program blending innovative partnering, extraordinary isolations, and moments of theatricality with a fresh perspective. Led by the artistic vision of director and choreographer Soon-ho Park, the program includes the rigorous male duet BOW and the clever ensemble work Balance and Imbalance set to live music.

"There are very few opportunities for American audiences to see contemporary dance from South Korea, and this will be the first time that Bereishit is presenting a full-evening program anywhere in the U.S.," says Jacob's Pillow Director Pamela Tatge. "Park Soon-ho draws from both Eastern traditions and Western street dance practices to create a vocabulary all his own: one that is highly rhythmic, precise, and hugely expressive."

"Impressive and unforgettable" (Gesa Polert, Germany's Rheinische Post) Bereishit Dance Company brings its first U.S. evening-length engagement to Jacob's Pillow. Taken from the Hebrew word meaning "in the beginning", Bereishit embraces new experiences, emboldened by Korean culture and harmoniously confronting and navigating through its possible conflicts. The company includes an ensemble of dancers with a depth of contemporary dance training, all hailing from Seoul's Hansung University.

The program opens with Park's male duet BOW, a study of the traditional meditative artistry of archery. Built upon rigorous research of the sport, the two dancers recreate the act of making and firing a bow, turning these actions into a confrontation of identity. The work is set to a stirring score by prolific Italian pianist and composer Luduvico Einaudi, and illuminated by lighting designer Seong-heon Lee.

The program closes with Park's Balance and Imbalance, an ensemble work focused on negotiating difficult human relationships. Clever interplay between the cast of five dancers is accompanied onstage by a pair of traditional Korean drummers and a pansori singer. Park explores the sounds made by the body and the movements made by sound in a juxtaposition of Eastern and Western cultures. Lee Jong-Ho of PAMS Choice Selections states that Park "is a choreographer who makes the eyes and ears of the audience open and makes them share all the sentiments on stage."

Founded in 2000 by choreographer Soon-ho Park, Bereishit Dance Company is a Seoul-based Dance Company that approaches Korean traditional culture from a contemporary view, maintaining the fundamental value of practices, rather than borrowing or transforming them. The work of the company explores the issues of identity and transformation, delving into multimedia, street dance, community dance work, and real time interactive demonstration. The works of the company display a sensitivity towards space and rhythms, and are delivered with kinesthetic clarity and power. Bereishit Dance Company has extensive international touring experience and made its U.S. debut at Dance Salad Festival in Houston, Texas in their 2014-2015 season.

Bereishit Dance Company Founder and Artistic Director Soon-ho Park studied contemporary dance at Hansung University in Seoul, Korea, and actively worked as a professional dancer from 1992 to 2001. He then completed a choreography course at the Arnhem European Dance Development Center in the Netherlands where he developed his work and participated in many projects as a dancer in The Netherlands, Germany, and beyond. Park was selected as the New Choreographer by the German institution PACT Zollverein in 2003.

Park has created a wide-range of work including various projects with art installations, media artists, and musicians, as well as a collaboration with Giga Hizume, the director of Sal Vanilla, a multimedia and live performance group in Japan. He has received major funding from Arts Council Korea, and awards including The Choreography Award of the Year by the Performing Arts and Film Review, The New Choreographer's Award by the International Modern Dance Festival, and the Best Choreography Award both from the Korean Dance Researchers and Critics Association and the ChangMu Arts Center. His work opened Festival Asia in Barcelona, Spain, in 2007. Since then, Park's work has been presented at venues and festivals in many countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay, amongst others.

In 2008, Park was invited to the Asia-Africa Dance Exchange program of SIDance (Seoul International Dance Festival) and participated in its international residency program as a Program Director in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, in collaboration with Australian choreographer Rebecca Hilton and the Art Center Nabi in Seoul, Park created the Hello Project, an Australia-Korea live public dance and screen project. Using only gestures and dance movement, the project utilized Skype technology on a grand scale, and tracked the sharing, teaching, learning, and interpretation of different movement gestures as they were exchanged live via large public screens located in Seoul and Melbourne.

IF YOU GO:

Bereishit Dance Company

Doris Duke Theatre

Wednesday, June 29-Saturday, July 3, 8:15pm

Saturday, July 2 & Sunday, July 3, 2:15pm

• Free Pre-Show Talks with Jacob's Pillow Scholar-in-Residence Maura Keefe are offered in Blake's Barn 30 minutes before each performance
• Free Post-Show Talk with artists from Bereishit Dance Company will take place immediately following the performance on Thursday, June 30 at the Doris Duke Theatre.
• Tickets start at $39. Now on sale online at jacobspillow.org, via phone at 413.243.0745, or in person at the Jacob's Pillow Box Office. $10 Youth Tickets are available for all performances.
• Box Office hours: Wednesday- Saturday, 11am-8pm; Sun, noon-5pm; Tues, 11am-5pm

Pillow Members receive exclusive benefits. To become a Member, call 413.243.9919x125.

Jacob's Pillow is located at 358 George Carter Road in Becket, MA, 01223 (10 minutes east on Route 20 from Mass Pike Exit 2). The Jacob's Pillow campus and theaters are handicapped accessible.

ALSO THIS WEEK:

Che Malambo

June 29-July 3, Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm

Ted Shawn Theatre

Founded in 2007 under the direction of renowned France-based dancer and choreographer Gilles Brina, the Argentinian ensemble Che Malambo presents the traditional dance of South American cowboys ("gauchos") in an evening of "rapid-fire rhythms" and "spinning boleadors" in a "rousing group spectacle" (Siobhan Burke, The New York Times). The company of 14 male dancers integrates live drumming and swift, intricate footwork in an evening-length display of the 17th century-styled competitive duel of Malambo, a test of strength, agility, and speed. Tickets start at $39; $10 Youth Tickets available for all shows.