Kyoungil Ong - DanceVersity Faculty
Kyoungil Ong is teaching Korean dance at DanceVersity World Dance Camp, August 2011.
Kyoungil
Ong is a professional dancer, choreographer, and director
for the OngDance Company & OngDance School in the United
States, and serves as an artistic director for the San
Francisco Korean Culture Center and the Oakland Asian
Cultural Center. Dancing since the age of four, Kyoungil Ong
received her training for drum, ballet, modern and Korean
traditional dance in Korea. She graduated with top honors
from the prestigious Seoul Arts High School, and
Sungkyunkwan University, where she earned her B.A. in dance
and her M.A. in Physical Education. While in college, she
won the coveted Gold medal for the adult women's competition
in the prestigious 25th annual Dong-A Dance Concourse. Ms.
Ong served as an instructor for several universities and
gained national acclaim as Principal Dancer for the National
Dance Company of Korea, performing for prestigious stages
worldwide, including the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the
1998 World Cup in France, and venues throughout 30
countries, including Japan, Germany, Italy, and the
Americas. She has worked in collaboration with various
inter-disciplinary artists, poets, Japanese and Chinese
dancers, and various women Drum Dance groups through which
she was able to explore new directions in choreography. She
has choreographed over 50 new works.
Of her American achievements, Ms. Ong has completed
multiple performances for the SF Ethnic Dance Festival,
World Arts West’s People Like Me, West Wave Dance Festival,
WAVE RISING SERIES in New York, and many more. In her
concert, Merging of East and West in Korean Dance for the
Asian Art Museum, which was supported by the Bay Area CA$H
Grant, her work brought out the hidden beauty of traditional
Korean dance. The OngDance Company was selected to receive
the Ethnic Dance Choreography Commission Award from World
Arts West and The San Francisco Foundation in 2005 under her
artistic direction. Also she received the Isadora Duncan
Award for outstanding achievement for her dance company in
2006. In 2006 and 2009, she received the Grant from the
Korean Art Council for new young artist. Last year she
received an award from the Barcelona International Dance
Competition in Spain with her OngDance School which also
toured this year in New York and throughout Europe.
web site: www.ongdance.com
An Introduction to Korean Dance
Korean dance has over 5,000 years of rich history, originating in ancient shamanistic rituals. Today it encompasses both folk and contemporary dance. Throughout the ages a number of dances sprang from humble origins and gained particularly high status, including the Court Dance , Buddhism Dance, Shaman Dance, Folk Dance and Drum Dance.
The dances are made lively and colourful by the use of props such as long billowing silk scarfs of pure white, drums, hats and even swords. These are used by dancers to play out scenes of great joy, heartbreak and temptation. Dancers embody the fluid motion surging through the traditional music to which they perform
