Did She Dance on Stage

Concept and performance: Min Kyoung Lee

This investigation-in-performance or performance-in-investigation by Min Kyoung Lee is putting the questions about dance and theatre on stage. Min begins the work with particular assumptions, namely, that dance is an event, something that either happens or not, that dance is first an experience, before it is used as a medium for conveying meanings in theatre. Thus, Min is asking herself: what is dance doing on stage, what is dance as experience for the spectator? Unravelling her parallel investigations of the physical and mental and the unbridgeable gap in between, she searches for dance. Treading in the ground of fiction, she asks herself throughout the performance, as you, the spectators might too: did she dance on stage?

Min Kyoung Lee (South Korea) was born and grew up in Seoul. Min studied Oriental Philosophy in Seoul, before starting Contemporary dance in Auckland and has been working in New Zealand and Europe since 2003. In her works, Min has been exploring dance in its experiential state (with works titled as Did She Dance On Stage, Untitled, Untitled 2 & 3) and psychology in relationship (All and Only For My Dancers, Three Wives, Meditation, and Motion Sickness), especially around political issues (How Long It Takes to Convert Gary to Communism, Know Myself or Thyself, The Station of Conviction). Min is actively involved in an artist-driven initiative Sweet and Tender Collaborations, and is a recipient of 2006 DanceWEB-Europe Scholarship, Creative New Zealand Funds, and 2007 Akademie Schloss Solitude Fellowship. Min is currently collaborating with Thomas Ferrand (Projet Libéral, FR) on a new creation.