Elder Modern Dance Pioneer Stages Immersive Monday-Night ‘Party Dance’
Creatrip Team
3 months ago
Renowned Korean modern choreographer An Ae-sun (66), founder of An Ae-sun Dance Company, opened an immersive research project called “Moment Edit” at Arko Arts Theater in Seoul. Staged on Monday nights when the theater is usually closed, the performance turns the entire 1–3 floors into a moving stage: archival footage of dancers in their twenties is projected on lobby walls while the company’s 50‑something dancers perform below, creating a collision of past and present. The piece mixes DJ music and a wine bar, invites audiences to wander freely, and presents interviews and archives on the 2nd floor (archive 영상—archive video). On the 3rd-floor studio, seven younger dancers perform solos that deconstruct and reassemble An’s method, pointing toward future work. An, who has reinterpreted Korean aesthetics in modern dance for over 40 years with works like “Karma” and “Ssikim” (씻김—traditional cleansing ritual), calls this an experiment in the relationship between theater and audience rather than a conventional performance or retrospective. “Moment Edit” runs two more Monday nights (8th and 15th), inviting viewers to experience blurred boundaries of time, body, and audience and to reconsider why contemporary dance matters now.
