KOREAN-ITALIAN DANCE TRIPTYCH: COMPANY SIGA (KR) & COMPANY BELLANDA (IT)

Three short dance performances in one evening

In collaboration with EN-KNAP Institute and the Zagreb Dance Center

COMPANY SIGA (KR): REST

Choreographer : Jaeyoung LEE 
Dancer : Woobin LEE, Taenyoung LEE
Lighting: Yujin HONG
Music: la del russo, from Gotan project
Producer : Hana JO
Production: Company SIGA

A ball restlessly bouncing off the ground. Ceaselessly surging energy of the body. They are now running towards rest.

Rest displays the burnout and fatigue from the image of a ball restlessly moving and bouncing, and shows the desperate need of rest and the following sense of void. This show maximizes the use of body energy by using the image of a ball which has a flexible and organic way of moving. Since the premiere in 2011, was introduced in the 2013 NUS Arts Festival in Singapore, 2014 World of Dance in Belgium, 2014 Rue Dance in Congo and 2015 Grec Festival in Barcelona. It was also invited by the Spanish Outdoor Festival Association "Acieloabierto" and performed in 3 outdoor festivals – Trayectos in Zaragoza, Lekuz Leku in Bilbao, and Corpo (a) terra in Ourense.

... Rest is a good mix of fun which combined the versatile use of small movements and the unexpected twist at the end.
PARK Sung-hye, (Dance Critic) / Monthly Dance Magazine Momm

... Hidden moments of humor are skillfully embedded throughout the piece, and the harmony between the dancers is finely tuned to a heartbeat-like rhythm of percussive sounds. Above all, Rest stands out for its fullness of energy, clarity of theme, and unpretentious passion.
Dance and People / Dance Critic Jang Ji-won

 

Foto: Arthur Abram

COMPANY BELLANDA (IT): SIMPOSIO

Company Bellanda, Italy, 2022

Compagnia Bellanda:
Giovanni Leonarduzzi, choreographer, dancer, artistic director
Lia Claudia Latini, dancer, choreographer, organization director

From Plato's story to the present day, a continuous tension in search of the total, unique, complete body. From the "hermaphrodites" narrated in Aristophanes' speech, supernatural figures, in strength and shape, to the divided body that we have. The attempt at reunion, the tension towards completeness, the relationship never completely "satisfied" because it is now impossible to go back to being a "single body". A perennial desire for reunion, a desire that animates and moves bodies. From Plato's specific story to the analysis of current society and the dynamics of the relationships it contains: the difficulty of finding, maintaining and cultivating a relationship as a couple in a society that pushes towards ever stronger individualism and which leads to less acceptance of the couple's "compromise". From here our moving figures are born where the two bodies, added together, create a larger one.

Compagnia Bellanda associazione Ets, officially born in 2018, is an Italian dance company, directed by a vision that arises from the urban environment, which aims to find hybrid languages, movements rich in meaning communicated through technique. Compagnia Bellanda becomes the first Italian dance company born and directed from an urban (breakin) vision to receive this official recognition. GIOVANNI GAVA LEONARDUZZI, choreographer, dancer, artistic director, was invited as a participant, national representative but also as a judge in various national and international breakdance competitions and soon began to look for an alternative path in this type of movement, trying to create his own identity and creating a new language that could now be included in the "experimental" category. Going deeper and deeper into this research, he arrives at dance theatre, almost losing his starting point. LIA CLAUDIA LATINI, dancer, choreographer, organization director, she began studying, academic dance (classical,modern and contemporary). At the same time she continued her artistic studies and graduated in fashion design. A bond which influences her artistic vision and her aesthetic tastes. She approaches dance without gender distinctions. This path leads her to mix, hybridize languages, patterns, structures and search for new images.

 

Foto: Ikin Yum

COMPANY SIGA (KR): ZERO

Ecstasy of moving moments. 
A movement toward a higher level of freedom beyond my limits.

Choreographer : Hyuk KWON
Dancer : Hyuk KWON, Soyeon KIM, Heajin KIM, Hyelim BYEUN, Selim LEE, Woobin LEE, Jaeyoung LEE, Taenyoung LEE
Music : bluechan 
Lighting: Yujin HONG
Costume : Wooseong KIM 
Producer : Hana JO
Production: Company SIGA

ZERO is a work that seeks to find an answer to this persistent question. After exceeding the limit of 100% physical limitations, and then back to ZERO. It is a performance that asks questions about the things that appear from the body in extreme conditions with the body itself as the theme. The dancer's body was not just used as a tool for performance, but the process of changing and exhausting the body itself was traced. Now that it is difficult to find performances that explore the essence and properties of the body, ZERO is again examining the potential of the body in dance by illuminating what the body is and what it creates as an ‘empty shell’.

ZERO by Company SIGA Receives Grand Prize at the 28th Dance Arts Awards. The highest honor of the Dance Arts Awards—the Grand Prize for Best Performance—was awarded to ZERO by Company SIGA.

... ZERO presents a collective, full-bodied choreography set to a raw two-beat percussion rhythm, flowing irresistibly like a massive ocean current pulled by the moon’s gravity.
Monthly MOMM, January 2022 (Excerpt from the award announcement for the 28th Dance Arts Awards)

... ZERO reexamines the potential of the body in dance by illuminating what the body is, and what it can generate as an "empty shell." It is a return to the body's primal presence—a reflection on its limits, its rawness, and its capacity to produce meaning beyond representation.
Cho Hyung-bin, Independent Dance Critic, January 2020

Company SIGA - Rooted in the Korean word "sinabro"—meaning "little by little"—Company SIGA creates dance works that reflect everyday life through subtle, thoughtful movement. Their collective process brings together diverse ideas and bodies into cohesive artistic pieces, often in collaboration with artists from other disciplines. Rather than speed or spectacle, their work embraces simplicity, repetition, and the essence of the human body. With Speed, Basic, and Body as core principles, Company SIGA seeks a natural rhythm that honors the quiet flow of life—and reveals meaning in the seemingly insignificant.

 

The guest performance by the Korean group SIGA was made possible by the Seoul Section of the International Dance Council CID–UNESCO.