On Stage, Charlotte Professor Opens Up The History Of Modern Dance
UNC Charlotte Associate Professor of Dance Kim Jones had never heard of Choi Seung Hee until about 15 years ago, when a friend showed her a short video about Choi. Being both Korean (on her mother’s side) and a modern dancer (she was a Martha Graham Dance Company member), Jones was intrigued.
Ten years later, it was while she was wrapping up her research on “Tracer” that Jones recalled the film of Choi Seung Hee. “I was thinking about my own culture and thought, let me investigate her more,” she said.
In studios and classrooms in the United States, the known history and techniques of modern dance have been almost exclusively American and European. Research like Jones’s is opening up that tunnel vision. She is bringing that history to the stage in movement that is rooted in the research and resonates with her own dance training, her personal story and the connection she feels to Choi.