Founded in 2011 by choreographer Soon-ho Park, Bereishit is a Seoul-based dance company that approaches the Korean traditional culture from a contemporary view–keeping the fundamental value of things, as opposed to simply borrowing or transforming them. The work also explores the issues of identity and transformation and delves into multimedia, street dance, community dance work and real time interactive demonstration. It displays an amazing sensitivity towards space and rhythms and its performances are always delivered with kinesthetic clarity and power.
Recommended readings to get you in gear for the show.
Emily Coates and Sarah Demers, Physics and Dance. Yale University Press, 2019.
Stephen J. Hage, Let There Be Light: Physics, Philosophy & the Dimensional Structure of Consciousness. Algora, 2013.
André Lepecki, Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement. Routledge, 2006.
“Creation of a piece is like the creation of a world,” Park has explained.
“Bereishit” is the first word of the Torah, and of the New Testament’s Gospel of John. It’s typically translated into English as the well-known phrase “in the beginning” although technically the phrase is closer to “in beginning,” and the Torah’s first section or reading is also itself called “Bereshith” and covers days 1-7 of the creation of the universe. The phrase’s transliteration to English is variously rendered – Bereshit, Bereishit, Bereshis, Bereishis, or B’reshith.
The potentiality in this name has inspired others, in addition to Bereishit Dance Company – notably, several space-bound Israeli vessels have also used the name, including “Beresheet” (2018) and “Beresheet 2” – the former, a time capsule that crash-landed on the moon, carrying cultural artifacts including a copy of Wikipedia; the latter, a planned set of voyages to the moon and to Mars.
Every semester, we pick book(s) to complement the shows in our season – it’s a cross-genre take on comparative literature. Whether or not you have a chance to see this season’s shows at NYU Skirball, you can pick up the book and join us via Zoom for an informal discussion.