About the Korean National Ballet
The Korean National Ballet (KNB), established in 1962, is Korea’s first professional ballet company and embodies the history of Korean ballet. During its nearly 60-year history, KNB has been widely recognized both at home and abroad for its scores of skilled dancers and choreographers as well as art direction and an impressive repertoire. Today, comprised of about 60 of the country’s top ballet dancers and a repertoire of international masterpieces, the ballet company continues to reach out to audiences through regular performances and an array of special events.
KNB’s major full-length ballet repertoire includes Yuri Grigorovich’s Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Spartacus, and La Bayadère; Patrice Bart’s Giselle; Márcia Haydée’s Sleeping Beauty; and John Cranko’s The Taming of the Shrew. With a range of other performances including Uwe Scholz’s The Seventh Symphony, Glen Tetley’s The Rite of Spring, George Balanchine’s Serenade, Christian Spuck’s Anna Karenina and Renato Zanella’s Mata Hari, KNB has broadened its scope from classical ballet to modern, neo-classical and dramatic ballet. KNB has also strived to create a repertoire of original works such as Prince Hodong and Heo Nan Seol Heon - Su Wol Kyung Hwa inspired by traditional Korean folk tales and classic poems, respectively. Hoi Rang, which premiered in 2019, is another original work that renders a traditional Korean narrative through the movement of Western dance forms. These productions demonstrate how much effort has been put into the creation of original Korean ballet works.
Since 2015, the ballet company has highlighted the KNB Movement Series to provide its dancers with an opportunity to showcase their choreography talent. This project is significant not only as it supports the dancers as they start a new phase of their lives as choreographers but also enriches and expands KNB’s repertoire by further developing the pieces created by the dancers to become robust works that continue beyond the one-off showcase.
Also, to fulfill its mission of making ballet more accessible to the public, KNB engages in a range of programs such as Regional Performance Tours and Ballet Academy Tours that bring ballet to every corner of Korea. Furthermore, it has performed around the world as the representative Korean ballet company, promoting the excellence of Korean culture and art to the entire world.
About the Artistic Director: Kang Suejin
Before joining the Korean National Ballet as an Artistic Director, Kang Suejin worked with Stuttgart Ballet in Germany for 30 years since 1986 and become a principal dancer at the company in 1997. She was appointed as Kammertänzerin (Royal Court Dancer) in Germany and in 2013 as a Honorary Ambassador of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics. She studied at Académie de Danse Classique Princesse Grace in Monte Carlo, Monaco and received an honorary doctorate degree from the Department of Dance at Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul. She is the recipient of the Prix de Lausanne scholarship (1985), President's Prize (Republic of Korea, 1990), Prix Benois de la Danse for Best Female Dancer (1999), Order of Cultural Merit from Bogwan (Republic of Korea, 1999), The 9th KBS Global Korean Award in the Arts & Culture Category (2001), The Ho-Am Foundation's Ho-Am Prize (2002), John Cranko Association's John Cranko Award (Germany, 2007), Order of Civil Merit and Seokryu Medal (Republic of Korea, 2007), Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg (Germany, 2014), The Kowoon Foundation's Kowoon Cultural Award (2014), Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Sejong Cultural Award (Republic of Korea, 2015), Association of Korean Journalists' Proud Korean Award (2015), Paradise Culture Foundation's Paradise Award with Special Merits (2016), Korean-German Society's 9th Mirok-Li Prize (2016), and the 7th Korea Wave Awards' Award for Service of Excellence in Pure Art (2017). Kang also worked as a jury member at international dance competitions including the Prix de Lausanne (2006, 2012, 2017), Seoul International Dance Competition (2006), International Istanbul Ballet Competition (2010), Benois de la Danse (2017), and Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition (2017).
About the Choreographer: Kang Hyo-hyung
Kang Hyo-hyung, a Korean National Ballet ballerina who has choreographed various creative works, is a soloist who joined the company in 2009. Ms. Kang graduated from the Korea National University of Arts and received the Minister’s Award from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in South Korea in 2010. She showed her outstanding choreography through KNB Movement in 2015, a project to foster choreographers of the national ballet, and was nominated in the choreographer category at Russia’s Benois de la Danse for her work, Shake in 2017.
