MOdern DAnce FEstival Series 

Select Korean Performances from MODAFE, the International Modern Dance Festival

Streaming Online | Three Performances | 48 Hours Only 

MODAFE YouTube Channel: @modafekorea

The Korean Cultural Center Washington, D.C. (KCCDC) proudly presents the MOdern DAnce FEstival Series, featuring select performances by cutting-edge Korean dance troupes at the International Modern Dance Festival (MODAFE).

This virtual performance series highlights three exceptional original works recently seen during MODAFE, Korea's premiere international dance festival held in May 2021. Each exclusive recording is viewable online for just 48 hours. Viewers can sample the vibrant energy of Korea's contemporary dance scene in the post-COVID era and get to know some of the groups pushing the creative envelope on stage in a country known as a global pop culture powerhouse.

MODAFE is the longest-running and largest contemporary dance festival in Korea and is held annually in May. The festival, which was founded in 1982 and celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, started out as The 1st Korean Modern Dance Fest. It was renamed the International Modern Dance Festival in 1988, became known colloquially as as MODAFE in 2002, and has since gained a reputation as a premiere international festival. Every year MODAFE presents exciting experimental performances with a variety special programs and events. It is aimed squarely at the coexistence and often the fusion of Korean and global modern/contemporary dance while also enhancing support for choreographers and dancers and communication between dancers and audiences. The festival serves as a place for artists from around the world to share their modern dance forms and sensibilities and for talented young Korean dancers to be introduced to international performing arts market.

While MODAFE initially presented modern dance only, it has gradually expanded to the broader realm of creative and contemporary dance performances, bringing many of the world's best dance troupes and choreographers to Korea. The festival represents an opportunity to experience current trends and styles in modern dance in an intensive and comprehensive way.

For more information, please visit at e.modafe.org.

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La trahison des images

August 20 at 8:00 p.m.  –  August 22 at 8:00 p.m.

Performed by Leedongha Dance Project

We believe in what we see, but facts are not always truth. What we believe in and what we perceive—are they really the same? In general, our perception recognizes information delivered through the five senses as factual. But are such facts really true? In the paintings of celebrated Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte, for example, what we see, hear, and feel may not be the truth, and perhaps the truth we think we know is not a just one. Even if an object is represented realistically, it only depicts the object and cannot be the object itself, hence the translated title of this work, "the treason of images." This performance doesn't ask whether we believe in what we see, but whether we see what we believe in. Leedongha Dance Project, established in 2015, pursues instinctive expression by focusing on natural movements in which everyday life becomes dance, implementing this approach concretely on stage. The troupe attempts to communicate with the audience through creative expression by approaching timely subject matters with various perspectives.