THE DIRECTOR
After majoring in contemporary dance at Hansung University, PARK Soonho danced in South Korea from 1992 to 2001. He then completed a program for choreographers at Europe Dance Develpment Center in Arnhem, the Netherlands. In 2007, he launched the Park Soonho Dance Project and became active globally. Since he Founded Bereishit Dance Company in 2011, Park has presented original choreography based on continuous research on the human body, communication with multinational and multidisciplinary artists and reinterpretation of traditional art, thus creating his own unique world. His choreography has been acclaimed for its perfect harmony of music and dance and for its creation of something new, transcending the East and the West, dance and marrtial arts and tradition and contemporary.
Since 2005 he has been teaching more than 10 universities. Now, he is an adjunct professor in department of dance at Hanyang University and teaching subjects for professional dance education such as dance creation, improvisation of contemporary dance, producing of dance work at Seoul Institute of the Arts and Dankook University.
"Park is an overwhelmingly prominent choreographer. His choreography was constantly inspiring. Not to mention the delicacy and the high degree of precision that does not miss one detail, it showed a striking sense of space use and rhythm. His choreography was expressed through precise movements, power, clear intentions, and coincidences, and was clearly a cultural synergy to contemporary Korean society. So his choreography certainly has an infinite possibility of encountering Western contemporary dance."
THE COMPANY
Bereishit Dance Company was founded in 2011 by choreographer Park Soonho. Interested in the dynamic relationship between nature’s physical laws and the human body and that between people and society, the Company seriously explores these relationships. Starting from such exploration, the Company forms a basis for its choreography with acts improvised by contact. Bereishit attempts to connect the forms and themes of specific sports and traditional art genres. They also presents choreographic works that demonstrate their excellence and universality, thus drawing attention in and out of Korea. Currently the Company is ceaselessly invited by festivals and theaters in North America, South America, Europe and Asia and performs actively.
Bereishit is the one of the most well performed dance companies, and their performance was a sensation in the Jacob's pillow Festival. It has very positive reviews from the audience "it's very harmonized between tradition and contemporary, it's new impressive, and the dancers have very high technic like athletes."
- Pamela Tatge, Artistic Director of Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival -
- KWONG wi-lap, the former artistic director of Gwangdong Modern Dance Festival -
What distinguishes him from others is the way of his approaching to the traditional culture from the contemporary view to touch the Korean's universe sentiment of today. He puts focus on keeping the fundamental value of things, not simply borrowing or transforming them. this way of his working maybe an alternative to the dance productions, which sometimes are too abstract or serious. PARK is a choreographer, having both sincerity and artistic values.