Festival favourite Korea National Contemporary Dance Company (KNCDC) returns with a contrasting double bill which showcases the talent and precision of the company’s dancers, including the latest work from choreographer Young-doo Jung since his 2025 Olivier Award nomination for Lear at the Barbican.
In Jung’s Voyage, a solitary spacecraft moves towards a singular point. Using upbeat, lyrical choreography juxtaposed with a tongue-in-cheek classical score, Voyage playfully oscillates between colour-drenched minimalism and moments of joyful communion.
Inspired by the repetitive actions of the traditional Japanese toy ‘kendama’, Ryu Suzuki’s Hakkō explores the gradual transformation of body and mind through focussed iterations of the simplest movements. The dancers fight to assert independence within the complex patterns of the horde, giving Hakkō a frenetic, pulsing energy which draws from club culture and electronic music.
“An hour of extraordinary dance and mesmerising choreography.” - Seeing Dance on Jungle (2025)
About Korea National Contemporary Dance Company
Korea’s only national contemporary dance company, KNCDC collaborates with artists of outstanding creative vision to create contemporary dance works that reflect history, society, and everyday life in modern Korea—resonating with audiences across regions and generations. In May 2023, choreographer Sung-yong Kim was appointed as the fifth Artistic Director of KNCDC.
www.kncdc.kr
IG: @kncdc
About Young-Doo Jung
Young-doo Jung is a choreographer, director, dancer and actor who experiments with a wide range of forms and systems in choreography and composition, focusing on margins, breaths and subtle changes rather than excessive movement. His work aims to handle the density and rhythm of movement with delicacy.
Jung began his career as a theatre actor in 1992. He later majored in choreography at the School of Dance, Korea National University of Arts. In 2003, he founded the dance company Doo Dance Theater and began his choreographic practice. He undertook a residency at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Tours in 2004 and completed the composition workshop led by Susan Buirge at Royaumont in 2004 and 2006. Jung also participated in the Grand Atelier project in 2007.
He taught technique, choreography, and composition at Rikkyo University in Japan (Department of Body Expression and Cinematic Arts) from 2013 to 2017. He also served on the faculty of the Korean National University of Arts (School of Choreography and School of Korean Traditional Arts) from 2018 to 2021.
His major works include the opera Hwajeonga (2025), the Korean traditional music theatre (changgeuk) Lear (2022), With (2022), In the Land of Punctuation (2021), Symphony in C (2018), Fugue (2015), A Seventh Man (2003), and Craving for More (2003).
In 2025 he was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Opera at the Laurence Olivier Awards for Lear. He has also won the Choreographer of the Year Dance Arts Award from Monthly Dance in 2005, and the Yokohama Arts Foundation Prize and French Embassy Prize for Young Choreographer, Yokohama Dance Collection, in 2004.
About Ryu Suzuki
Ryu Suzuki is a choreographer developing a distinctive language within the Japanese contemporary dance scene. Born and raised in Japan, Suzuki graduated from Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance with a first-class honours degree. Whilst at Rambert, he was chosen to appear in Itzik Galili's A Linha Curva in Rambert Dance Company's UK tour. After graduating, he joined Phoenix Dance Theatre under the artistic direction of Sharon Watson.
Since leaving Phoenix in 2012, he has worked with Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Philippe Decouflé, Tero Saarinen, Inbal Pinto/Avshalom Pollak, Ella Rothchild, Tristan Sharps, Motoko Hirayama, Ryohei Kondo and Kenta Kojiri, amongst many others.
As a choreographer, he has created works for prestigious dance institutions including Dance Base Yokohama (Japan), AURA Dance Theatre (Lithuania), Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts (India), Suginami Ballet Union (Japan) and more. His pieces have been performed domestically and internationally, in the U.K., Spain, Italy, France, Romania, Lithuania, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, India and China.
Agnus (2013) won the Session Best Prize from Kagurazaka Session House, whilst BU won the Prize for Young Choreographer from the French Embassy, the MAZDANSA Prize and the FITS Award from Sibiu International Performing Arts Festival.
He was Associate Choreographer at Dance Base Yo
kohama from 2020 to 2023, and is now its Resident Choreographer.
