Published : Aug. 28, 2015 - 17:10
A performance by the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia, who will take part in the upcoming 18th Seoul International Dance Festival starting Sept. 30 (Courtesy of Luis Castilla)
Bringing the engaging sights and sounds of Spain, Turkey, Croatia, Palestine, Africa and more, the 18th annual Seoul International Dance Festival (SIDance) will be kicking off its festivities next month, offering dance-lovers a filling smorgasbord of contemporary dance performances to view from around the world.
From traditional to hip-hop, modern and avant-grade, this year’s upcoming festival will feature both solo and multinational collaborative performances from more than 25 countries. The shows will be taking place in venues across the city of Seoul at the Seoul Arts Center, the Gangdong Arts Center, Sogang University’s Mary Hall and the Namsangol Hanok Village Gugakdang from Sept. 30-Oct. 18.
“When we first started this festival nearly 20 years ago, contemporary dance was relatively unknown in the country,” Lee Jong-ho, founding artistic director of SIDance, said in a press conference held at the Sejong Center in Seoul on Thursday.
“People knew very little about it, and few people probably felt that it would be something they could enjoy or become interested in ... I am very happy to see that this is no longer the case with contemporary dance in Korean society today.”
Opening the festival will be the highly energetic, flamboyantly colorful flamenco dancing of Spain’s Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia. In the act’s debut performance in Korea, the dance company will perform “Images -- 20 Years of Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia,” a show paying homage to the company’s 20-year history as a world-leading ambassador of flamenco. The traditional Spanish art form is characterized by its intricate rhythmic hand clapping and percussive footwork.
Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia will hold performances for two nights at the Seoul Arts Center’s CJ Towol Theater on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.
Also in the SIDance lineup is a special performance by dancers and choreographers from the Asia-Africa Dance Exchange 2015. The multinational collaborative residency project is a five-month exchange program formed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, inviting dancers from Indonesia, Rwanda and Tanzania.
The program is intended to not only invite international guests to Seoul to learn the Korean language and traditional Korean dance, but to also provide training in contemporary dance workshops by combining their diverse cultural and performance arts backgrounds.
“I am very grateful to all Koreans for bringing all these people from other continents to come to participate in this project,” said Isack Peter Abeneko, a Tanzanian dancer and choreographer who has been participating is the Asia-Africa exchange program.
“I think it’s wonderful and I encourage the Korean government and all Korean organizations to do the same thing ... to make this big world into a village to feel like there is more togetherness,” he added.
The exchange program members will perform for one night only at the Gangdong Arts Center Theater on Oct. 13.
Ticket prices vary based on venue and performances. For more information on the upcoming SIDance festival and its program schedule, visit
www.sidance.org or call (02) 3216-1185.
By Julie Jackson (
juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)