The Center for the Arts to Present Reimagining Tradition: Korean Traditional Dance by Cho Heung Dong

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present Reimagining Tradition: Korean Traditional Dance by Cho Heung Dong at 8 p.m. on Dec. 8 in the Drama Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

With a career spanning 50 years, Cho Heung Dong is widely acknowledged as a dancer who commands one of the most wide-ranging repertories of Korean traditional dance. Cho began dancing at the age of nine, and has become a representative of Korea through his mastering of many forms. One of the few male dancers of Korean traditional dance, his dance exudes vitality and spirit rarely seen in other contemporary performers.

Cho has won many honors for his work, including the choreographer prize at the Korean Dance Festival in 1981 and the Seoul Metropolis Cultural Prize in 1995. He was awarded culture and art prizes by the Korean government in 1995 and received a cultural decoration in 2000. In 1993, Cho became the youngest member of the Korean Art Academy. He has been the chief director of the Korean Dance Association since 1991, and arranged many dances for the 1998 Seoul Olympics. He was a principal dancer for the National Dance Company of Korea in 1983 and its artistic director in 1993. In 1997, he assumed artistic directorship of the Seoul Arts Group, and presently holds the same position with the Kyonggi Provincial Dance Company.

Cho Heung Dong's choreography for Reimagining Korean Traditional Dance fuses moments of dance with live musical accompaniment. Cho's choreography is infused with the vitality and spirit of his dancers; the dancer's body is concealed in voluminous silk and full sleeves to capture the Korean taste for idealized beauty in dance. This program includes court dances, various regional Shaman dances, Buddhist ritual dances and representative Korean folk dances such as Sung Mu, Chungbu Salp'uri dance and T'aep'yongmu.

The many performers in this work are active in numerous other professional groups, including the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Art, the Municipal Song and Dance Company of Seoul and the Dance Company of Ky?nggi Provincial.

This program is part of a national tour organized and supported by The Korea Society. The Korea Society is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501 (c)(3) organization that is dedicated solely to the promotion of greater awareness, understanding and cooperation between the people of the United States and Korea.

Tickets are $20 general admission and $14 for students. For more information, call 645-ARTS.