Seoul Dance Festival will bring together dance enthusiasts

The 43rd Seoul Dance Festival is set to kick off on a one-month journey on Oct. 27, showcasing various dance genres.

Titled “A Wind of Change with Seoul Dance Festival,” this year’s event consists of pre-festival events, the main festival, a dance competition and a closing ceremony.

While the event will begin in earnest on Nov. 11, pre-festival events highlighting performances by dance and performing arts students will take place from Oct. 27 to 31.

On Nov. 11, four seasoned dancers will take the stage in the opening performance titled "Amazing Maestros." The show will feature Chung Seung-hee, Choi Chung-Ja, Bae Jeong-hye and Cho Heung-dong, who have all devoted several decades to dance, take the stage at the Arko Art Center in central Seoul.

A new addition this year is “Seoul Dance Lab,” which will take place on Nov. 22-24 at the Arko Art Center, is a contest to select creative works that best express contemporary social issues through dance.

Dancers will present their works under the theme "The Dance of Infectious Diseases: The Practice of Dance in the COVID-19 pandemic.” Four teams invited to the competition -- Garimda Dance Company, System on Public Eye, Chosungmin Dance Company and Ahn Duck Ki’s dance company -- will each perform for an hour.

Meanwhile, “Fantastic Dancing Stars” will introduce South Korea’s emerging dancers on Nov. 13 at the Arko Art Center.

To promote public participation, the organizer is hosting an online short-form video contest called “Reelswan.”

Seoul Dance Festival, launched in 1979, is a major dance festival in Korea that features Korean dance, modern dance, ballet and other genres of creative dance performance.