Looking Back on Three Years of Exchange through a Dance Festival in Korea

Session House runs a dance exchange project with Korea every year. Shunsuke Nabeshima, who oversees stage operations, speaks about its significance.

 

Shunsuke Nabeshima

 

Suseong Artpia (寿城アートピア), the festival venue

 

For three years, from 2023 to 2025, I continued to participate as a guest representing the Session House Planning Office at the international dance festival NDA (NEW DANCE for ASIA), held in Daegu, Korea. These activities marked the restart of our “international exchange project after COVID,” and were also an important process for discovering new talent to invite to the annual “Dance Flower” performance. I would like to briefly share my impressions from participating over these three years.

 

The first year, 2023, was held just as the world was finally beginning to move again after the pandemic. The festival used two venues: a theater program and performances at the studio of its organizer, Yu Ho-sik (ユ・ホシク). What stayed with me was that solo works predominated, perhaps still reflecting the social circumstances at the time. There was also a program focusing on young dancers from Daegu, making it a year when I felt the local energy.

 

With festival organizer Yu Ho-sik (ユ・ホシク) and others

 

The second year, 2024, was held at the Daegu Arts Center, where Moon-sook (ムンスク), who had previously appeared as a dancer at Session House, had become artistic director. It had a larger main theater together with a small theater, allowing a varied program. Outside the festival, I had valuable experiences such as watching Moon-sook’s company rehearsals and being shown around the theater facilities.

 

The third year, 2025, was held in an even larger main theater. A distinctive feature was street-performance-style dance presented in the lobby. Overall, there were few small-cast works such as solos and duets, and many dance companies coming from festivals in various countries and larger-scale works using stage sets. There were only a handful of solos and duets. Among them, I selected a solo by Kim Sang-hon (キム・サンホン), whose work’s world and bodily movement were interesting, as an invited work for Dance Flower 2026.

 

Kim Sang-hon (キム・サンホン)

 

Building on the knowledge and bonds gained through these three years of exchange, I hope to keep expanding new places for expression across national borders.