I don't want to stop at just the successful work called 'God'. I plan to continue creating works with new styles by new choreographers.
Yoonbyeol, CEO of Yoonbyeol Ballet Company, which has written a success story for a new ballet company with the original ballet 'GAT', said, "We will ensure that the next 'God' and the second Park So-yeon ('God' choreographer) emerge," and said that he would fully discover and support new choreographers.
The new work presented this time was created based on this direction. Yunbyeol Ballet Company's 'The Earth: us', which will be premiered at Yeongdeungpo Art Hall in Seoul on the 28th and 29th, is a contemporary ballet created by the company's choreographer Kim Yu-chan, inspired by Gustav Holst's orchestral piece 'The Planets', as selected for this year's Cultural Arts Center Specialization Support Project.
Younbyeol Ballet Company is a young private ballet company that attracted attention by selling out all tickets for its creative ballet ‘Gat’, which reinterprets the traditional Korean hat. The work was also invited to overseas stages such as Thailand and Hong Kong, and it became popular among people in their 20s and 30s, increasing the influx of ballet audiences.
CEO Yoon met with reporters at Yeongdeungpo Art Hall on the 9th and explained, "I felt a lot of pressure after the success of 'God'. While I was thinking about what would be my second, third, and fourth work, I saw the potential and charisma in Kim Yu-chan's choreography at the gala performance and decided to entrust it to him."
Young choreographer Kim Yu-chan, born in 2001, worked with the Joffrey Ballet in the United States and won first place in the senior category at the U.S. Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP). In addition to ballet, she also studied piano and Korean dance, and appeared on the dance competition program 'Stage Fighter.'
This work is Kim Yu-chan’s first full-act ballet. Regarding being in charge of the next work of a ballet company that is attracting attention as a new choreographer, he said, “It is a title that is both greedy and burdensome.”
Regarding the background of the creation, he said, "This work started from music that I really liked," and "I felt that the shape of the universe in music was very beautiful, so I thought I wanted to express it through my language and gestures."
The work features 26 dancers, including CEO Yoon Byul, Kim Yu-chan, and the ballet company's representative choreographer Park So-yeon, drawing their own trajectories and depicting relationships amidst conflict and attraction. The gaze that was directed towards the vast universe eventually returns to Earth and illuminates 'us' within it.
There is no 'Earth' movement in the original suite, which consists of movements named after Jupiter and other planets in the solar system. Kim Yu-chan said, “I think the reason there is no ‘Earth’ movement is because Holst thought of himself as the Earth,” and added, “I also tried to weave the story of us humans living on Earth into the choreography.”
Kim Yu-chan performed the solo dance of the ‘Museong’ part. He explained, "The subtitle of Mercury is 'a person who delivers a message,'" and "I wanted to be a guide to the movement that opens the stage that unfolds the vast universe. It is a stage that implicitly represents the subsequent movements."
Kim Yu-chan is the youngest member of the ballet company. Regarding the difficulty of teaching choreography to seniors and leading them, he said, "As I learned the choreography and gained confidence in the members, my older brothers and sisters seem to listen well to my firm explanations or requests and follow them diligently."
CEO Yoon Byeol, who is performing as a dancer for the first time in four years, also smiled, saying, "I work the hardest because of Kim Yu-chan's passion and energy, who wakes up early in the morning and watches rehearsal videos. I took the initiative to lose weight and follow Kim Yu-chan's words."
Regarding the unconventional move of entrusting the choreography of the first act of a new work to the youngest member, CEO Yoon said, "I have faith that the members can do it," and "If the planner trusts the artist, the result will come out well."
“I jumped in and created ‘God’ with choreographer Park So-yeon, without anything or anyone to help me. I decided that I wanted to become someone who could help young artists in the future.”
To this end, CEO Yoon said that most new ideas come from daily communication between members. He explained, “I always ask members to make sure they don’t keep their ideas hidden,” and “the actual works are also developments of ideas that came up while eating or exercising.”
“Every time I create a work, I make it with the determination to receive the ‘Benoit de la Danse’ (the most prestigious award in the dance world). I will support the choreographers well and present the work that I did my best.”
