Korea's Ambiguous Dance to Make San Francisco Debut

Though people may not always know it, there is a personal rhythm inside of everyone. Ambiguous Dance aims to bring out this inner ambition through their evening length work Rhythm of Human.

Rhythm of Human expresses the story of a modern Korean man who seeks his own personal rhythm within society. The dancers of this performance transform simple gestures into the rhythms of life to teach its audience that dance is not just for dancers, we all have an inner rhythm that we need to express.

Artistic Director and choreographer Kim Bo-ram said of the piece, "Every moving and breathing creature takes form as a rhythm, a movement, and an expression of dance. Nevertheless, we fail to recognize that what we declare as "beating to our own drum," on the whole, gets lost in the rhythm of society. Fortunately, we humans can seek to rediscover our own rhythms within us once again. With this in mind, I have sought to tell a story of the difficulty and beauty of acknowledging freedom of expression. Moreover, as a message of vitality, this performance speaks to the essential nature of dance and its ubiquitous presence in our lives."

Kim Bo-ram founded Ambiguous Dance Company with dancer Jang Kyeong-min in 2008. The name of the group describes the "undefinable and ambiguous" characteristics of the dancers in terms of their style, aesthetic, genre, and preconceptions. Rather than focusing on delivering a definitive artistic message or meaning, they convey their true message of nature and the purity of humanity through bodily expressions that are brought to light through music. This is the truest form of language from the beginning of time before we had the words to express it.

Kim Bo-ram
Born in Korea, Kim Bo-ram entered into the field of contemporary dance unconventionally. Working as a back-up dancer for 10 years, he began to wonder about how dance speaks to the audience, and with passion and ambition, he began to develop his own choreography.

Since founding Ambiguous Dance Company, Kim has created three works a year on average. Creating dance works flushes out uncertainties ingrained within him. In the process of creating, stories and answers to these uncertainties are existentially and inherently revealed. Kim first begins this process by choosing music with which to work. Interpreting the music, movements begin to take form in his mind, intertwining with melodies and rhythms, like a shuttle weaving across a loom.

In Kim's work, he seeks to return to the core of music and dance: pursuing sound before music itself and body movement before dance, through which one can find distinct musical interpretation. Kim hopes to convey intimate communication, harmonizing music and dance.