Presenter Interview プレゼンターインタビュー
韓国ダンス界をリードする
国際舞踊協会韓国本部とSIDance
Korea
Leading South Korea’s dance world
CID-UNESCO Korean Chapter and SIDance
Mr. Lee Jong-Ho
In 2009 in its 12th holding, the Seoul International Dance Festival (SIDance) has become one of the highlights of South Korea’s autumn performing arts season. Since the first holding in 1998, some 1,300 dancers from about 50 countries have participated in this festival and the total cumulative audience draw since the first festival now totals approximately 170,000. Besides this festival, its organizing body, the Seoul Section of the CID-UNESCO also operates programs for collaborative productions with overseas dancers and for overseas performances by Korean dancers, as well as a variety of exchange programs. In 2005, the Japan Foundation, the Korea Foundation and the National Theater of Korea jointly organized the “Korea-Japan Friendship Dance - Butoh Festival/Contemporary Dance Festival” in Seoul. As the first systematic presentation of butoh and contemporary dance together in one festival, it became the focus of much attention in the Korean ad Japanese dance worlds. In this interview we spoke with Lee Jong-ho, who founded the CID-UNESCO Korea Chapter in 1996 following successful careers as a newspaper journalist and dance critic and continues to be a leader in the Korean dance world as president of the CID-UNESCO Korea Chapter and artistic director of the SIDance Festival. (Interviewer: Noriko Kimura)