🩰 From Swans on Seokchon Lake to the Doors of Giselle, This Week's Ballet & Contemporary Dance News! - 2026.10.16 | Modern Dance / Ballet

Hello, fans! 🩰 In mid-October, with the autumn air in the air, ballet and contemporary dance news came pouring in. Here are the must-know stories for any true fan! ✨

🦢 A Ballet Night Ringing Out at Seokchon Lake

The Seoul Ballet Festival opened at Seokchon Lake ^[2]. Domestic and international companies, including Seoul Ballet Theater and the Slovak National Ballet, took part, filling the autumn night stage with classical and contemporary ballet. 🌙 On the 15th, ahead of the opening performance at the Seoho waterside stage, ballerinas were seen rehearsing ^[3]. Over 100 artists from Korea and abroad took part, and the international ballet festival began in 2023. Just look at those swans reflected on the water 🥹

The festival's theme is 'Ballet Makes the City Dance!' Dancers and companies from home and abroad performed, and anyone could watch for free ^[4]. Baemin also handed out mint-colored balloons to visitors for free, and just imagining the atmosphere makes us smile 🎈

🕯️ The Doors of 'Giselle' Finally Open

The National Ballet's 'Giselle' raised its curtain on the 13th. As a masterpiece of Romantic ballet, the moment the door of the bright village girl Giselle's house opens in Act 1 must have built up great anticipation ^[1]. Four ballerinas, Eom Na-yun (33), Lee Ha-yeon (31), Lee Eun-seo (29), and Ahn Su-yeon (23), are debuting as Giselle. Each of them carries a different weight of 'first time', which makes this performance even more special!

Lee Ha-yeon joined in 2019 and has performed in the corps, as Willi, the spirit of the dead, and last year as Giselle's mother. At rehearsal, when she opened Giselle's door for the first time, she said, "I realized that if I keep doing what I'm given, sometimes I can fulfill my dream too." 🥲 Eom Na-yun felt she had no regrets about retiring after dancing the lead in 'The Nutcracker' in 2024, yet this summer in Kazakhstan's 'Le Corsaire' she stepped in for an injured colleague as the lead Medora with great success. Lee Eun-seo drew attention as the youngest ever National Ballet member and, ten years later, took her first full-length leading role. Ahn Su-yeon, who has led many full-length ballets, is facing a new challenge with Giselle.

This production is the first full-length performance in Seoul by artistic director and company head Kim Joo-won, who took office in August, which makes it even more meaningful. Kim said, "A dancer's rank must not limit their artistic potential," and also stressed, "Opportunities are open, but artistic standards must never be lowered." With both opportunity and standards in hand, these four dancers' performance has us already shaking at the ticketing page 😭 'Giselle' runs from the 13th to the 18th at the Opera House of the Seoul Arts Center.

🌏 A Wave of Korean Contemporary Dance in New York

The Korean Cultural Center New York and the Whitewave Kim Young-soon Dance Company held the contemporary dance performance 'Waves of Korean Contemporary Dance' over two days, the 9th and 10th, at the center's theater ^[6]. It showed the many currents of Korean contemporary dance in one place, so Korean contemporary dance's waves clearly rolled across the ocean 🌊

🕰️ A Dance for Adults Who Have Lost Their Time

The contemporary dance 'Momo and Dancing...' asks what time means for children and adults who live busy lives ^[5]. The premise, in which the time thief from Michael Ende's 1973 novel 'Momo' appears in Seoul in 2026 to steal people's time, is intriguing. In a world chasing the clock, this work makes us wonder whether someone has been stealing our time too ⏳

💌 Audiences Become the Sponsors

The Gyeonggi Arts Center's crowdfunding for resident performing groups raised a total of 2,573 million won ^[7]. 186 backers purchased 541 rewards, and project goal achievement averaged 100%. From the ballet side, Choi So-bin Ballet's '2026 Tango in Yongin & Cinderella' took part. Seeing audiences cheer on the stage with their own support is genuinely moving for us fans 🥹

Fans, wasn't it a rich week for ballet and contemporary dance news? From the swans of Seokchon Lake to Giselle at the Seoul Arts Center, shall we go plan our next live viewing? See you with the next news! 💃🕺