REVIEW: JUNGLE by Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, part of a festival at The Place 8 – 24 May
‘Full, All Too Full’ ★★★ ½
Jungle, presented by the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company and directed by Sungyong Kim, launches this year’s Festival of Korean Dance with commanding technique and visual rigor. Drawing on the company’s Process Init movement research, the piece explores human instinct and survival through a dense choreography of ensemble precision and fractured individuality.
From the outset, sixteen dancers move in symmetrical formation to a soundscape that evokes the vast, impersonal universe. All the individual dancers’ abilities are stunning. The choreography deliberately mirrors high-pressure social structures, particularly those found in Korea, where uniformity can suppress individuality. As the piece progresses, dancers break from the collective, their movements becoming erratic, awkward, and at times evocative of Japanese Butoh —an interesting crossover, considering Butoh’s Japanese roots and this production’s Korean national identity. This detour is fascinating, though culturally unexpected.
The production is visually and technically immaculate. Lighting, formations, and transitions are executed with near-military discipline. Yet this very precision becomes a double-edged sword. Everything is full—over-articulated, over-designed, over-explained. Rather than opening a space for imagination, the piece leaves little room for audience interpretation. The message is not so much expressed as imposed.
Dance is the act of positioning bodies in specific time and space. Jungle does so with intention and clarity, but at the cost of subtlety. The metaphors are literal, the costumes thematic, the struggles repetitive. What could have been an invitation to reflect on our shared experience of pressure and survival instead feels like a tightly controlled demonstration.
Ultimately, Jungle is a showcase of excellence—an embodiment of what it means to be a national company. But while it dazzles with skill and power, it occasionally forgets the quiet invitation that makes performance truly resonant: the space for the audience to step in and imagine.
JUNGLE by Korea National Contemporary Dance Company
A Festival of Korean Dance 2025 at The Place 8 – 24 May
BOX OFFICE https://theplace.org.uk/whats-on/
A Festival of Korean Dance continues with further shows at The Place, Pavilion Dance South West, Dance City and Lowry
