[Review] Kinesis: Movement Answers Existence with Survival
Creatrip Team
3 months ago
Kinesis, a staged performance by Yangyang-based company Breakthrough (choreographer Baek In-geun), premiered at Chuncheon Puppet Theater on the 29th. Using the biological concept of kinesis—organisms reacting to stimuli to find suitable environments—the work confronts the encroachment of AI into creative fields and asserts the dancers’ will to survive through physical expression. Four performers (with two replaced due to injury) use objects and media—most notably a pin art board (pin art board: a surface of movable pins that forms relief silhouettes)—to create shifting, tactile landscapes that split and reconnect the ensemble. The choreography alternates between interactions with AI-generated visuals on screen and raw, laborious human gestures (evoking Hephaestus when dancers strike panels with hammers), highlighting the difference between simulated images and lived bodily experience. Kinesis expands on Breakthrough’s earlier piece Beyond Algorithm shown at the Chuncheon Performing Arts Festival, deepening its exploration of body, object, and media. The review praises the company’s demonstration of regional dance vitality and their insistence that human creative labor and resilient physical presence cannot be fully replicated by AI.
