The stage at The Place transformed into a living ecosystem last night as the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company (KNCDC) unveiled Jungle, a hypnotic hour-long work choreographed by Kim Sungyong. Presented as part of the annual Festival of Korean Dance, the piece offered audiences a vivid immersion into a world where movement, sound, and light converge to conjure the untamed.
Sixteen dancers—athletic, precise, and endlessly inventive—embodied everything from flora to fauna, from flickering light to shifting weather. With a score by composer Marihiko Hara, the performance moved seamlessly between delicate rustles and thunderous crescendos. At one point, the soundscape swelled into the roar of helicopter blades so convincing it evoked Miss Saigon’s infamous landing scene, threatening to break through the theatre walls.
Though ensemble in nature, Jungle felt profoundly individual. Subtitled Sense and Response, the piece places each dancer within their own microcosm, reacting to cycles of day and night, rain and wind, danger and survival. Kim’s process, rooted in his experimental method Process Init, asked performers to generate personal responses to specific stimuli. The result is a kaleidoscope of sixteen distinct interpretations, woven together into an unbroken flow of kinetic energy.
The choreography resists narrative in favour of atmosphere. Dancers crisscross the stage in ceaseless motion, their paths colliding and diverging like currents in a river. At times, the sheer density of movement made the stage seem alive—an organism in constant flux. It is a testament to Kim’s vision, and to the company’s stamina, that such vitality was sustained without faltering.
Still, the absence of even a thread of connective storytelling left me reaching for something more tangible. Dance, after all, can speak in universal narratives. Here, the stories remained private—sixteen inner worlds glimpsed but never fully shared. And yet, perhaps that was the point: a jungle is never a single story but an accumulation of countless lives, coexisting in tension and harmony.
Whatever one makes of its elusive structure, Jungle is a striking achievement—visually lush, sonically rich, and choreographically daring. It may not guide you with a clear storyline, but it sweeps you into its world and refuses to let go. For that alone, it’s an hour well worth surrendering to.
