Announcing the World Premiere of

with

A Wordless Conversation of Music and Dance

between
Jung YoungDoo
Choreographer and Dancer

and
Jarosław Kapuściński
Composer and Pianist

Saturday, July 16 at 2pm & 7pm
Sunday, July 17 at 2pm
ODC Dance, San Francisco
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Choreographer Jung YoungDoo and composer Jarosław
Kapuściński perform the world premiere of their new collaboration, with, at ODC Dance in San Francisco on July 16 and 17. The work is a continuous one-hour “conversation” between musician and dancer who create a counterpoint between motion and stasis, each asking the other to react in real-time and attempting to establish a profound, almost meditative, connection with each other and the audience. This is their first appearance at ODC, one of the most important centers for contemporary dance on the West Coast.
with was created collaboratively by longtime friends Kapuściński and Jung when they began to exchange music and video clips (between San Francisco and Seoul) at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Kapuściński usually performs his music with computer-controlled video projections while also introducing liveness, spontaneity of performance, and subtlety in ephemeral timings. Working so closely together with a dancer on stage takes this kind of creative undertaking to a higher level.

The artists’ first collaboration, in 2014, was Pointing Twice, commissioned by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players under the direction of Steven Schick.
Three performances of the continuous, one-hour work will be presented at ODC Dance, 351 Shotwell Street, San Francisco on Saturday, July 16 at 2pm and 7pm and on Sunday, July 17 at 2pm. Tickets are available on the ODC website.

with

Jung YoungDoo
Choreographer and dancer

Jarosław Kapuściński
Composer and pianist

Allen Willner
Light designer

Julie Zhu
Creative assistant

Constantin Basica
Sound engineer

Annie Tillis
Production manager

A preview of the piece, with Jung dancing under a freeway overpass in Seoul to a recorded version of Kapuściński’s music is available here; when studios were closed during the pandemic, Jung often took his work to available outdoor locations.
One of Kapuściński’s inspirations for with was the Korean art of Pansori, a theatrical form that features one singer and one drummer. The singer performs facing the audience but often turns as if to address the drummer, as if in conversation. A relationship is created onstage between two performers whose roles and perspectives are different but complementary. “We hope to bring to the stage a similar kind of relationship—one that draws on our friendship and mutual appreciation. The piano will be positioned prominently on stage, allowing me to face YoungDoo easily, and he will be dancing while listening deeply, with physical awareness and eye contact, acknowledging my presence throughout.”
Both artists are invested in the collaborative and conversational nature not only of the performance, but of the creation and development of the work itself. “This way of working was both unique and extremely rewarding. It is also consistent with my artistic mantra that visuals and music, when developed simultaneously, with constant feedback and interplay between composers and artists or dancers, can result in a whole different genre, which I like to call ‘intermedia.’”
Jung comes to the project with a similar perspective. In general, dance is choreographed and performed “to” music, Jung explains. “Sometimes music is the environment for dance, and dance is the environment for music. I wonder whether it’s possible for one whole composition of both music and dance to exist as a single entity.”
Although the elements of the piece are choreographed, Jung still sees it as particularly free, flexible and expressively elastic. “Because time changes,” he says, “everything is reborn. We use the word repetition, but repetition does not exist in a real sense, only spontaneous repetition. The sun rises every day, but it's not the same. The river flows every day, but the water is not the same. This work has the same meaning for me. I want to experience Jarek's music in a way that renews my body and movement.”
About the Artists
Jarosław Kapuściński is a Polish-born intermedia composer and pianist whose work has been presented at New York's MoMA, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Museum of Modern Art Palais de Tokyo in Paris, National Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, and many other venues. He has received numerous awards, among others, at the UNESCO Film sur l'Art Festival in Paris in 1992, VideoArt Festival in Locarno in 1992 and 1993, Manifestation Internationale Vidéo et Art Éléctronique in Montréal in 1993, and International Festival of New Cinema and New Media in Montréal in 2000. Kapuściński's primary interest is creation and performance of works in which musical instruments control multimedia content. He was first trained as a classical pianist and composer at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and expanded into multimedia at a residency at Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada (1988) and during doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego (1992-1997). Kapuściński is actively involved in intermedia education. He was a postdoc and lecturer at McGill University in Montreal, has taught at the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific, and has lectured internationally. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Composition and Chair of the Department of Music at Stanford University. He has published scholarly websites at Stanford on Japanese Gagaku music and Noh Theater. For more information about his musical works and writing, visit www.jaroslawkapuscinski.com.
Jung YoungDoo is recognized as a leading choreographer in South Korea with an international reputation. He studied contemporary dance at the Korean National University of the Arts School of Dance and, after graduating, founded Doo Dance Theater. Jung has participated in several museum exhibitions, including Nam June Paik Art Center's Opening Dance, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, and the Shapeless Museum. He has performed with Tokyo’s Marebito Theater Company and collaborated with contemporary visual artists such as Rhee Kibong in the Cloudium at the Arko Art Center in Seoul; Do Ho Suh in the Hamnyeongjeon Project at Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art; and Kim Sora in Abstract Walking - A Spiral Movement Gradually Distancing from a Single Point, at the Art Sonje Center in Seoul. He has taught dance at the Korean National University of Arts in Seoul; Rikkyo University in Tokyo, where he was a specially appointed associate professor at the Department of Body Expression and Cinematic Arts; College of Contemporary Psychology; Kyoto International Dance Workshops; and other venues. He is a recipient of the Yokohama Arts Foundation Prize and the French Embassy Prize for Young Choreographer at the Yokohama Dance Collection 2004. He also garnered support in Japan with the choreography for Silent Flower, the opening program of the Yokohama Dance Collection 2016.

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