finishing ...

I am back in Rotterdam. Was it worth it?
Yes, definitely.
It has been a great experience.

Even though many things worked out differently from what was intended, it has woken me up on many layers, professional and personal - so I intend to not fall back into sleep again.

I thank every one I've met in Korea on this trip:
Thank you for meeting and exchanging, whether it was very little or very much. May your life have much happiness and receive for what you gave when we met.

As for Seung-heeYang and Professor Jeong-ho Nam, I cannot thank you enough.

감사 합니다 !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRNGhqe4OiQ

last minute

it's time to round up.
there is a last exam-class, the last pedagogy-class with Prof. Nam, saying goodbye to students, staff & people in Seoul. there was a very nice dinner after the exam-class with everybody of the entire Department of Choreography, to finish off the year. I even had to give an improvised speech, but had lost my socks, so I did it bare-footed, which is not so polite in Korea... I used the moment and told the students that more than in any single form, I believe in that something which can create many forms, and that this is what I focus on as a teacher. Dept. of Choreography at Korean National University of Arts can be such a place to study and train this ability.

I meet and have a wonderful Indian dinner with Hee-kyeong Nam and Hee-ah Choi, two dance-therapists that studied with my friend Dr. Meg Chang. we discuss about Kinetic Awareness®, authentic movement and dance-therapy in Korea.

there are many brochures and notes to bring back with me to Rotterdam. they are all too heavy and I have to send them by post.

I have a last dinner with a small group of students at my favorite Kimchee-restaurant
(naebang station, exit 3, turn right, second block 02) 598-9492) **

Suna Choi of Seoulfringefestival has brought me in contact with some interesting people (among them Momggol who also have ties to the 'Lunatics' in the Netherlands, and Trustdance)

I made a last-minute visit to Noridan at Haja Center A center for young people who try to find alternatives to the regular scheme of school - university - job. Instead they create their own jobs and they are very successful with it. There is an alternative drumming group who work with recycled materials, an organic cooking school, a social enterprise institute. They all work towards the future and I could feel a very inspiring energy at their presentation.

** Prof. Nam and students and me had some wonderful dinners in our favorite Tofu restaurant BaengNeyonOk 백년옥 2407 Nambusunhwan-ro, Seocho-gu, Seoul (Nambu Bus Terminal Stn. Exit 4-2 on Subway Line 3), 10am–10pm +82-2-523-2860 - it's just across from the KNUA compound, off Nambu Bus Terminal https://baengnyeonok.modoo.at/ - very recommended! ~

silver raven

(for full screen / high-quality view, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lpKAA6Hf68&fmt=18)


performed 1 November 2008
Korean National University of Arts, Seoul

audiovisual assistant: Yeong-Jeon Kim
lights: Eun-Mi Lee
stage manager: Tae-Hyeon Kim
video-registration: Seung-Hee Yang
special thanks to: Professor Jeong-ho Nam, Kazue Ikeda

A mediator-character between the realms of the living and the dead, but also still human being performing.
A poet who feels like a prophet, the inability to communicate what is felt. (Again I used words from "Kassandra" by Christa Wolf, she too is unable to communicate her visions and insights to the people around her, because of her profound disbelief and inability to commit to one direction)

As a choreographer I was interested in movement compounds, comparable to the Korean writing system of HanGeul, which are made up of several sub-units (Chinese characters work in a similar way, but are even more diverse, because some sub-units are used for sound others for meaning)

In terms of meaning this can be very easy for dance as long as there is no further specification: the associations can go many directions even from one single movement. Dance-technically this was rather difficult and I am more satisfied with the ending part in that respect.


The piece was very under-rehearsed and so the audience as well as myself were left with a feeling of a void when I ended it. I show the result for what it is.

Special thanks goes to Professor Jeong-ho Nam and Kazue Ikeda, who encouraged me to go for my artistic work fully, not holding back, which I managed to do during the performance.
Seung-hee Yang helped to make this registration possible...

Also, I would not have been able to get anywhere without the help of all the people listed above, as well as many more students and people at the university who each did their part in getting everything ready.

Kamsa Hamnida! (thank you)