SEJONG CENTER

Pre-inaugural Performance by Seoul Metropolitan Ballet,

ahead of its inauguration in Aug. 2024

A daring imagination of contemporary ballet by three choreographers, Ahn Sung-soo, Ryu Hoe-woong and Lee Luda, who cross genres with unique sense and imagination and give fresh blow to audiences.

From Ahn Sung-soo's Rose to Ryu Hoe-woong's No More and Lee Luda's Bolero 24 -

A world of contemporary ballet full of dynamic energy and freedom unfolds.

Spring celebrating with intense and sensuous ballet

A new way to play with and think about ballet

Let’s meet the ballet full of life right here at the Rite of Spring

to be opened by the Seoul Metropolitan Ballet.

ROSE (Choreographer Ahn Sung-soo)

The Rite of Spring, the masterpiece of Choreographer Ahn Song-soo, has been re-choreographed by Korea National Contemporary Dance Company after ‘Rose-The Rite of Spring’ premiered by Sungsoo Ahn Pick up Group in 2009, and has since garnered favorable reviews at numerous stages home and abroad.

In 2024, when 15 years have passed since it premiered, Rose is reborn as a contemporary ballet under a new interpretation that features faster and more dynamic movements and compositions, and the superb musicianship of choreographer Ahn Sung-soo.

NO MORE (Choreographer Ryu Hoi-woong)

“We calm our trembling heart down and take a deep breath.

We face the consequences of success or failure with caught up in heavy tremors, anxiety and tension, and every moment looks like our lives.

We are at the moment to take to a dazzling stage from the dark back stage.“

Choreographer Ryu moves modern people buried in fatigue and listlessness, and the harsh society accustomed to giving up, to a dark back stage as they are. He portrays the moment when we move forward to a bright stage through energy to revive the lost senses, which we badly need.

He develops from standardized ballet steps into means to introduce his own viewpoints toward society.

Bolero 24 (Choreographer – Lee Luda)

Bolero 24 is a reconstructed production of Black Bolero, which won the Korea Ballet Association's Work of the Year Award last year, to fit for purpose of the Seoul Metropolitan Ballet's pre-inaugural performance. The number 24 means the historical moment in 2024, when the Seoul Metropolitan Ballet is founded, and at the same time symbolizes the passage of time that is circulated in 24 seasonal divisions a year and 24 hours a day. There are numerous versions of the choreography of the Ravel’s Bolero, but Bolero 24 is a novel version that reinterprets Bolero portraying today’s Seoul in contemporary representation and audio-visual production using media art.