'Dance Korea!' brings tradition together with contemporary

By Ana Paula Höfling

•	'Dance Korea!' 2 p.m. today and Feb. 23; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday Kennedy Theatre, University of Hawai'i-Manoa $12 general, $10 seniors, military, UH faculty and staff, $8 students, and $3 UHM students 526-4400, 956-7655

"Drum Medley," choreographed by local Korean dance teacher Mary Jo Freshley, showcases the work of University of Hawai'i students who have studied Korean traditional dance and drumming with Freshley since last fall. The piece highlights Jennifer Radakovich and Colleen Murphy on the puk — two-sided, round, standing drums — in a combination of drumming and movement that requires the flexibility of a dancer and the rhythmic skills of a musician. Radakovich and Murphy, backs to the audience, are surrounded by three drums each, one drum shared between them. In precise unison, they alternate between hitting the center and the rim of the drum, going from one complex rhythm to another. But this is not only an auditory experience: to add to the spectacle, they kneel, jump, turn and go into impressive back bends as they move from drum to drum.

Jeong-ho Nam, a guest choreographers from South Korea, sneaks elements of Korean traditional dance into her contemporary dance works, making her movement vocabulary layered and unique.

"Wanderers," which closes the program, begins with Eunsook Kim playing a small, loud gong, the kkwaenggwari, as dancers come in through the audience carrying colorful bundles. This 20-minute dance, packed with powerful images of displacement, migration, building and dissolving communities, could not be more appropriate for a concert celebrating immigration.

Skillfully combining 10 of her own students with 10 UH students in this piece, Nam's work is well rehearsed and performed with surprising maturity for a nonprofessional cast. Duets and trios cross-fade, and strong group unison sections give way to quiet, contemplative moments between a dancer and her bundle.

Nam is very interested in the use of weight: The weight of a dancer's leg swings her whole body around into a turn. At times, dancers surrender their weight passively to the floor; at other times, the floor is used as a springboard for weightless rebounds. Five dancers impossibly pile themselves on top of one standing wanderer, then, fluidly pour themselves onto the floor. All dancers take turns supporting each other's weight in unexpected ways throughout the piece. The wanderers enter carrying bundles, presumably containing their possessions; they exit leaving their bundles behind, this time carrying each other, like bundles, along on their continuous journey.

The dance performance is the result of a collaboration between the University of Hawai'i and the Korea National University of the Arts.

Usually, a dance spectator arrives at the theater with little information about a performance — the name of the company, who the choreographer is and the production title. Watching Dance Korea! at Kennedy Theater on Thursday was different.

I had met the guest artists from South Korea who have been sharing our studios at UH, I had seen glimpses of rehearsals as I walked by, and I had overheard dancers comparing bruises after rehearsals. This review will undoubtedly be influenced by this insight into the process, but I hope it will be richer because of it.

Ana Paula Höfling is finishing her MFA in dance at UH-Manoa.