The Korean Wave 2006 - Korean Cultural Service

The New York Times, friday, may 19, 2006
E14
A Choreographer
Showcases An
Assortment of
personalities
By JENNIFER DUNNING
Sunhwa Chung has at least three personalities, to
judge from the evening presented by her Ko-Ryo
Dance Theater on Wednesday at the Flamboyan
Theater at Clemente Soto Vélez. The first is the adept
modern-dance choreographer behind “Petals in the
Wind,” a duet on the program. The second is a delicately
compelling performer of Korean traditional dance. And
the third is something of a mystery.
“Petals in the Wind,” a 1999 duet danced to turbulent
music by Hans Zimmer, is a familiar portrait of a man
and a woman who shift continuously between dependence
and independence. Ms. Chung expresses those
shifts chiefly through grappling partnering and by having
one dancer turn away from the other. But there are
some excitingly surprising devices, like Yoshinori Ito’s
fast travel toward Claire Malaquias, his foot scuffing as
if to kick her.
Ms. Chung is exquisitely fluid in the soft turns and bobs
of Korean dance in “Of Love and Memories,” a 1995 solo
she also choreographed. Best of all are her long, lyrical
arms and expressive hands, and her odd mix of reticence
and lushness. She pulls out all the stops in “Il-haw II:
Missing Episode,” a dance for five (Maki Hatae, Mr. Ito,
Ms. Malaquias, Akemi Nishi and Ryoji Sasamoto) that
makes imaginative use of the magical Flamboyan stage
space, enhanced, too, by Miriam Nilofa Crowe’s lighting.
There are suggestions of urban street corners at night and
the couples and solitary individuals who inhabit them.
Once more, Mr. Ito stands out for his powerful presence
and sophistication as a performer. But here, as in
the opening dance, a premiere called “Life Is Every Day,”
Ms. Chung does not know when to stop. There, though,
the similarities end. It was hard to imagine that the same
artist choreographed this meandering, confusing new
group dance, performed within lines formed by two long
ropes and set to a collage of contemporary music.
The Ko-Ryo Dance Theater will perform through Sunday night at
the Flamboyan Theater at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center,
107 Suffolk Street between Delancey and Rivington Streets, Lower
East Side; (212) 868-4444.
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Copyright © 2006 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission.