The Greenwich+Docklands International Festival: Korean Focus
The Greenwich+Docklands International Festival: Korean Focus
Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF) is London’s leading festival of free outdoor performing arts, including theatre, dance, and performance to name but a few. Developed in association with XTRAX, 2017’s Korean Focus showcased the talents of performing arts companies from Korea at this extraordinary festival, with three companies performing as part of Greenwich Fair.
Greenwich Fair, which took place from Friday 23 June - Sunday 25 June 2017, featured three Korean productions at a new festival venue at the top of Greenwich Park Hill, established in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Maritime Greenwich’s inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Creative Group SUMBI, CCOT and People in Backpack.
Furthermore, Modern Table’s Men of Steel is a headline performance at Dancing City, GDIF’s much loved annual programme of alfresco dance that brings the parks, piazzas and waterfronts of Canary Wharf to life.
Creative Group SUMBI (숨비)
The Border of the Water: The Song of the Wind
23 & 24 June 2017
Greenwich Park Hill
An entrancing dance duet performed within a column of water and set against a night-time backdrop of Maritime Greenwich, the Thames and Canary Wharf beyond.
Creative Group SUMBI, based in Seoul, produce experimental work on roofs, in corridors and on the street, inviting audiences into their fascinating, synesthetic experience.
People in Backpack (배낭 속 사람들)
Metamorphosis
24 & 25 June 2017
Greenwich Park Hill
This puppetry performance, inspired by Kafka’s great work, promises to delight and surprise Festival audiences within the grounds of the Royal Observatory.
People in Backpack, from Korea’s Gyeonggi-do province, create imaginative performances based on social and personal experiences.
CCOT (꽃)
Massager
24 & 25 June 2017
Greenwich Park Hill
The audience is co-creator in CCOT’s ritualistic Massager where community participants will be trained to give paper massages to others, creating ‘Paper Humans’ whose susceptibility to wind and water reminds us of the fragility of life.
CCOT is a troupe of performers, painters and musicians led by Director Cheolsung Lee and based in Gyeonggi-do. They were established in Jerusalem in 2000 by Cheolsung Lee and Jinyoung Kim, who were both studying at The School of Visual Theater in Jerusalem, Israel. Since then CCOT have presented their visual performances in Europe, South America and Asia.
Modern Table (모던테이블)
Men of Steel
1 July 2017
Canary Wharf
A rare UK appearance from this all-male company from Seoul, South Korea, led by up-and-coming choreographer Kim Jae-duk.
The company mainly performs contemporary dance and at the same time, stage musicals, Pan-sori, rock and hip-hop performances that transgress the borders between genres. They have garnered much attention from the public and critics alike for their unconventional ideas and experimental projects that break down the barriers that traditionally exist between the audience and the stage, as well as between art forms.