Unworking Movement / Migrating Bodies, 2025
Live Performance, 60 minutes
Unworking Movement / Migrating Bodies was a collaborative project with artist Choi Taeyoon, which consisted of 1) a live one-hour choreographed performance, 2) a 5-day durational, participatory performance, 3) notation drawings, and 4) a video piece.
The live performance (photo above) asked how dance might be used to practice empathy with bodies whose lived experiences differ from our own. It further explored how we might encounter “other” bodies through movements that exist beyond the social identities imposed upon them. To this end, kinetic interviews were conducted with four migrants living in Korea and Germany, focusing on movements they performed in their free time rather than while working. This approach emerged from the recognition that migrants are often defined by their labor, even though their lives extend far beyond it. Eight key movements collected through the interviews were then transmitted to four performers, who repeatedly embodied them and entered into an ongoing dialogue with them.
Commissioned by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (MMCA)
Choreography by Yon Natalie Mik
Performed by Esl Kim, Sooyoung Park, Hyeontaek Oh, Daelan Yoon, Kwonkeum Ko, Yon Natalie Mik
Music Composer by Gregory Lenczycki and Christopher Davidson
Audio-Description by Yon Natalie Mik, Ko Kwonkeum
Photo documentation by MMCA