Chilseong Saenamgut: Ritual for sickness at Gibney Theater in NYC
Gibney, the New York City-based dance and social justice organization, presents the world premiere of Chilseong Saenamgut (Duringut): Ritual for Sickness, created by award-winning traditional and contemporary arts performer Dohee Lee, artistic director of Puri Arts. The work is a performance ritual inspired by the sacred rituals originating in the artist’s hometown of Jeju Island, Korea. The ceremony, which features Lee performing along with three musicians, and a ritual altar, continues the exploration of ritual performances she began in 2004.
“My motivation for creating rituals is to address needs…community needs, nature needs, ancestors needs and our own needs for healing and reconciliation,” said Lee. “I want to call upon this ritual to name out the sicknesses which we are challenging our community, our country and our world. This ritual is a way to use the body, mind and spirit to encounter and heal and transform.”
dohee lee reimagines a Korean ritual to heal
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About artists
ADRIA OTTE creates music inspired from a diverse musical background that includes classical violin studies, rock bands, traditional Korean drumming, free improvisation, and experimental electronic music. As a multi-instrumentalist, she has performed improvised and composed works on violin, electric guitar, and both digital and analog electronics. As a sound designer and composer she contributes to dance and theater productions as well as collaborations with video and visual artists.
JOSÉ MARIA FRANCOS (Lighting Designer) After a short career as a dancer and forced to leave his native Argentina for political reasons, Francos made the Bay Area his home. He has designed for Opera, Ballet and Theater among them Oakland Opera, Oakland Ballet, The Wall Flower Order, Joseph’s Papp NYC/San Francisco Festival Latino, June Watanabe In Dance, Vanessa Redgrave’s Amnesty International Festival, Ellen Bromberg Ensemble, Joanna Haigood’s Zaccho Dance Theater, Robert Moses KIN, Dance Brigade, Dohee Lee Performance Projects, Amara Tabor Smith, Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, NAKA Dance Theater and The Eastside Arts Alliance Artist In Resistance showcases and residencies. He worked for many years as Director of Production and Technical Director for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco from which he retired in 2017. Since then he has continued to work as a freelance theatrical designer.
DANA KAWANO (Ritual Wear Designer and Scenic/Installation Visual Artist) is versed in a multitude of artistic mediums. Her focus is to create ‘visual landscapes’ of elaborate wearable and/or scenic art that incorporate textiles, found materials and traditional mediums while integrating cultural/ritual layering to tell the story.
EMILY ENCINA is a queer, mixed Corean in diaspora. For the past 5 years with the support of Dohee Lee, they have been cultivating a relationship to ancestors and spirit through community ritual, traditional Corean drumming, movement arts and videomaking.
JAEEUN JUN (they/them) is continually exploring what liberation, decolonizing and wholeness means as a corean person in diaspora on turtle island through music and sound, legal advocacy with communities impacted by incarceration, and building relationships with plants, seeds, ancestors and their stories.
MI KYONG KIM (she/her) is a Korean immigrant with 40 years living in the U.S. She comes froma maternal line of shamanistic tradition in South Korea. She is a transpersonal therapist in SanFrancisco. Her practice strives to blend her cultural upbringing with contemporary threads of holism, art, and mindfulness.