Today we’d like to introduce you to Hyoin Jun.
Hyoin, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I am a dancer, dance choreographer, dance filmmaker, and dance instructor.
My life is all about dance, so I tried to seek my unique story from my dancing history.
I started to dance since I was in middle school. I never stopped dancing since then. My specialty is ballet and contemporary dance. After dancing for six years, I applied for the Berlin International Dance Competition TANZOLYMP in 2010. I was at a sophomore year of a university in South Korea as a dance major. Since my nationality is Korean, it was mandatory for me to serve the army for two years. However, there are certain ways to get army exemption from Korea government. One of the ways is to win 1st place at an international dance competition. I won the 1st place at TANZOLYMP, which is one of the top four international dance competitions, and with the award, I could get the army exemption from Korea government. This not only proves my dance skills but also let me concentrate more to be developed as a dancer and dance choreographer.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I am a human who creates aesthetics through movements.
I started to work as a dancer professionally as I enter a university in 2007. I worked as a ballet dancer for my professor’s company and freely worked as a contemporary dancer for several companies and collectives. After I came to the U.S. three years ago, I recently work as a dance instructor at Toe Toe Ballet Studio in LA and as a contemporary dancer at DAGDAG Dance Company.
I started to choreograph my own dance piece in 2011. In 2010, by winning at TANZOLYMP, I started to think about creating my own form of movement. Before I won the award, my full effort and focus were to build up my dance skills continuously. After winning the award, my focus started to change and made me want to challenge creating new corporal movements. Until now, I am a co-choreographer of a dance performing group named Goblin Party and I’ve choreographed dance pieces for around 30 big and small performances. One of the biggest performances that I made was B.C. (Before Christ). To create B.C. (Before Christ) I won 30,000,000 KRW (around $26000) grant award from Art Council Korea in 2014.
When I choreograph, I have more interest in human’s everyday movements then skillful or fancy dance techniques. However, my inquiry is about how can a human’s everyday movements (i.e. drinking water, running, walking, gestures, etc.) be developed and seen as meaningful dance techniques. I saw possibilities for this idea when I saw a well-performed chain of everyday movements. In other words, if a chain of everyday movements gets performed through proficiency, it can be a skillful dance that contains meanings.
With this choreographic idea, I also create dance films. My very recent dance film is named Resident Alien. Resident alien is my current status in the U.S. and for this piece, I tried to put my Asian body performing skillful everyday movements in the background, U.S.
I create a dance to seek sympathy. Because of this reason, I try to blend the human’s everyday movements and dance.
I believe all moving things can be dance. All human’s movements can be dance. All object’s movements can be dance. All nature’s movements can be dance. All movements can be dance through a choreographer’s process of crafting them through seeking aesthetics.
Any advice for aspiring or new artists?
I’ve realized that all art forms take time to reach people.
I hope artists does not give up and continuously develop through their own pathways.
I am saying this as I am telling other artists, but actually, I am saying this to myself, too.
Never give up on what makes you happy.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
By following my Instagram: hyoinjun88, people can see my recent dance researches and information about my future performances. By just following my Instagram, they will already support me a lot and coming to my future performances will support me greatly. Also, here are some more places where you can find me.
Hyoin Jun Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/hyoinj
Homepage:
http://hyoin12.wixsite.com/hyoinjun
Goblin Party Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/koreagoblinparty/
Contact Info:
- Website: http://hyoin12.wixsite.com/hyoinjun
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hyoinjun88/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hyoinj
Image Credit:
Jonathan Godoy, Kyung Gu Lee, Sang Hoon Ok
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