Brighton: Exploring the mythology of the dragon through dance

The Eun-Me Ahn Dance Company present Dragons on March 4-5 at Brighton Dome.

Pioneering choreographer Eun-Me Ahn’s latest production sees her company of dancers interacting on stage with projections of five inspiring young performers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Whilst dragons are feared in the West, in Asia they represent lightness, joy and optimism.

Taeseok Lee’s colourful projections will bring forests and clouded skies to life. You can also look forward to an evocative soundtrack from Jang Young-Gyu blending contemporary pop and electronic with a traditional score.

Eun-Me Ahn said: “Dragons for us are fantasy. You always hope that dragons will take you on an adventure in a good way. It is all about your dreams and the story about a journey and the story about our future. Sometimes it is so painful but you hope that dragons will become our friends. Some myths are bad and some myths are good but dragons are good figures. You can have the water and over our heads the sky. In our philosophy we are always looking at the sky. You've also got the earth and you also include the water and that's what this is about: when we make this piece, we were thinking about the dragons.”

It was also about bringing young dancers from the Asian countries together. All born in the year 2000, the year of the Dragon, they appear as holograms, sharing their hopes and fresh perspectives on how past and future can coexist. They interact on the stage with Eun-Me Ahn and her company of seven South Korean dancers.

“They are the new dragons for the future. Every Asian culture has a similarity about dragons in their culture. Before the pandemic the young dancers were going to come to Korea and then dance with us but then the pandemic happened and they could not come. Nobody could come and then we were thinking about how we might keep dance together and how we could use the technology online. These young dancers had never met before and they had never worked with a Korean choreographer and we needed a bridge for them that they could cross over. The dancers met one by one day by day online which took a lot of time but that was good because we had a lot of time.

“I started the company in 1988 right after graduating from university and then we did the Olympic Games and I have never stopped. In 1992 I moved to New York until 2000 when I came back to Korea. We're trying to find new dance for us. We are living in different times and Korea has to think about what it is going to do for the future – and young people have to think about what they want to do. We had traditional dance and now we are thinking about contemporary dance and what we can do with it.”