Korean dancers to share art

Yeiri Kim, now a senior at Brigham Young University, is originally from Korea. There, for six years when she was a teen, she had been a ballet dancer. Unfortunately, she had hurt her ankle. At BYU, she chose to major in finance.

As the semesters went by, however, she found herself thinking about how cultures can connect through art. She saw a performance by the University of Utah's Utah Ballet. She was impressed. She also found herself wishing that more Utahns could see traditional Korean dance.

One day she went to the office of Carol Iwasaki, who heads the U.'s ballet program, and said she would like to help arrange a cultural exchange between Kyung Hee University's dance department and the U.'s dance department. Iwasaki thought it was a grand idea.

Iwasaki went to Greg Geilmann, director of Kingsbury Hall, who said he would love to see Korean dancers perform in Utah. So it is that 33 dance students and teachers will arrive from Seoul this weekend to take part in an educational exchange and to dance for the public on Thursday night.

Recently, in her office in the dance building, Iwasaki and fellow dancer Nicholas Smith watched a DVD of a performance by Kyung Hee University students. (Smith is the event coordinator for the U.'s ballet department and also dances with Ballet West.)

The dances ranged from an athletic extravaganza by a bunch of male dancers, to what Iwasaki called a mesmerizing performance by a lone female, who "hardly moved at all."

Watching yet another dance, Iwasaki was struck by the way the women moved their hands. Smith said, "It is almost like they are dancing in water." Said Iwasaki, "Exactly." She added that she often tells her students to dance as though they are being resisted by water.

As they watched the Koreans dance, Iwasaki and Smith became increasingly animated about putting the Utah students and the Korean students in the same classes. They will have people on hand to translate the language, Smith said, but the body has a language all its own. He knows the dancers will be able to learn from each other, and also make each other laugh, and get to know each other, just by dancing.

Iwasaki said there is a lot involved in hosting 33 people, including hiring a local Korean restaurant to cater one Korean meal a day. The dancers were worried about being able to fuel their bodies with familiar food.

Next spring, if they can get a few more donations, U. students will go to Seoul. It is all in keeping with U. President Michael Young's goals of making the U. more international, Iwasaki notes.