Abyss
99 Art Company
SIFA 2023
The Anatomy of Performance – Some People
SOTA Drama Theatre
Last Saturday (May 20)

Abyss, presented as part of SIFA 2023, is a compact journey of sorrow and hope, unity and solitude that draws from Korean traditional art forms to express a universal state of being. It is a good fit for this year’s programming and theme The Anatomy Of Performance - Some People which aims to capture the spectrum of human experience and to highlight how individual experiences of the world are altered based on differing circumstances. 

The singular metaphor of life as the journey of a boat on the ocean is sustained through the performance. The vastness of the ocean alternates between the external space of the stage and the internal space within the dancers’ bodies.

Holding small white paper boats balanced on the back of their hands, the dancers move with the elegance of their traditional Korean dance training interpreted through a contemporary approach.

They transform into waves and ripples that produce keening gasps and sobs. With quick light movements of their arms, they are fluttering birds. They are a fleet of sunken ships, hands placed on each other’s shoulders with deep breaths and undulating spines, slowly rising from the deep. 

This is 99 Art Company’s first overseas performance since they were established in 2014. Along with the dancers are a keyboardist, violinist, drummer and pansori-trained vocalist Suh Jinsirl dressed in a classic hanbok made of traditional Korean handmade paper Hanji.

Pansori is a genre of traditional Korean musical storytelling. When the “han”, the Korean word for multiple layers of sadness and grief, can no longer be contained within the body, it emerges as a rumbling growl from within Suh’s belly. The “han” eventually bursts out of the dancers’ bodies in long sustained notes that are simultaneously a wail and a song. The live sound engulfs the space, bridging the distance between the stage and the audience.

It is almost as if the performers are dancing and gasping in our place. Abyss is a requiem that functions as post-pandemic collective catharsis, demonstrating that the journey of human emotions will always be a timeless topic.