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Among many of dance's wonderful forms is the ballet. Each year worldwide, countless young girls, and even a few brave boys, undertake lessons in this champion of dancing arts. In Korea, ballet continues to gain popularity and international reputation. Some even use the phrase "K-ballet" to refer to it. This aspect of Korea's advanced development, and an example of Korea's learning from other civilizations as a way of building her own, is the basis for my discussion in this column.
These days, there are a number of excellent ballet companies or repertoires in Korea. They include the Korea National Ballet and Universal Ballet in Seoul. I've read that students of the ballet increasingly view South Korea as a destination of choice for summer camps, intensive workshops, and for learning the dance. Moon Hoon-sook and Kang Sue-jin are some of the great teachers in Korea these days.
I've read that Korea's "style" of ballet emphasizes form, technique, and discipline. That is interesting to contemplate. While many praise and seek to emulate the Russian or French companies, every new country to adopt the art develops its own style and character, adding to the wonderful mix of possibilities for patrons of the arts and students looking to access a precious chance to dance with a leading global company.
Korea also has a share of top ballerinas and dancers. Among them are Kim Joo-won, Jung Young-jae, Lee You-cheong, and Kim Ji-young. Park Jae-keun is President of the Korea International Ballet Competition, which in June 2016 will host its eighth contest including many fine dancers from Korea and other nations. The annual Seoul International Dance Competition (SIDC) includes ballet as a category and counts as a place where new top dancers may emerge.
Ballet has a lot to offer. It's certainly not a "cute" matter and in many ways resembles a sport. The students must train, cross-train, eat and rest well, and take care of their bodies and minds and spirits to do well. Practice occurs nearly daily as the student advances, and there is every reason to compare it to other forms of athletic training and competition.
Ballet cultivates a love of music, a dedication to representing the body and soul in movement, and opens the self to a beautiful mode of expression through dance. Ballet teaches discipline, learning from others, and in some ways represents a kind of contemporary apprenticeship for those pre-professional and academy students who continue to progress with the dance into adulthood and a career.
I don't know that Korean ballet has reached the stature of more traditional Korean dances, such as jee (court dance) or jeongjae, to say nothing of the beautiful Korean folk dances or the dances associated with Buddhist rites. But such comparisons aren't really important. Just as Wikipedia notes a number of new traditional dance forms, such as drum dances, ballet in Korea will continue to evolve and reflect one of the strengths of Korean culture as a world culture. Through honoring diverse forms of artistic creation, and also by taking up cultural arts that originate elsewhere and adding to them Korean styles and elements, South Korea has risen to one of the most educated and prosperous of world societies.
Ballet is all too-often made into a province for the rich and for social elites. There's nothing wrong with well-to-do people adopting the arts as a site for philanthropy. Quite the contrary. However, it's important as a tradition evolves to consider how many of the best dancers have been "found," and countless others likely never discovered, by farsighted organization of ballet companies and academies.
I hope that Korean ballet companies will show greater interest in setting up scholarships for deserving students and for creating programs for students in public schools to try ballet. Since Korea is a fairly small country geographically, the government and the National Ballet should take steps to open satellite studios and academies throughout the nation.
Bernard Rowan is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University, where he has served for 22 years. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com.
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