[offstage: Ballet in Nature] Houston Ballet Soo Youn Cho 'Sketches for a Toiling Heart'

Houston Ballet Principal Dancer Soo Youn Cho graces U.S. Capital landmarks in the latest OffStage: Ballet in Nature short film

[WHAT] Sketches for a Toiling Heart, an original dance and music short film
[WHO] Houston Ballet Principal Dancer Soo Youn Cho
[WHEN] Video release: Thursday, September 30 at 6:00 p.m.
[WHERE] KCCDC social media on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram: @KoreaCultureDC
https://www.youtube.com/user/KoreaCultureDC

The Korean Cultural Center Washington, D.C. (KCCDC) proudly presents the latest episode of OffStage: Ballet in Nature, the hit series of cinematic outdoor dance short films launched in 2020, featuring Houston Ballet Principal Dancer Soo Youn Cho as she makes the U.S. Capital a grand stage in Sketches for a Toiling Heart.

The stone monuments and lush greenery of the National Mall serve as a serene backdrop for this original music, dance, and cinematic work filmed in Washington, D.C. and the nearby Korean Bell Garden located in Virginia’s Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. Amid the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, these iconic settings’ significance as a stage for dance is two-fold: they symbolize a nation still in need of heaing as well as Cho’s own life journey as a Korean immigrant, struggling to acclimate to American life and thrive as a professional dancer.

Through positive energy and powerful movements, Cho strives to send a message of healing through her artistry, rooted in communion with the natural environment. The resulting scenes are a profound and mysterious transcendence of time and space, layering visual and cultural elements of both Korea and the U.S.

[Production Credits]
Project Director | Hyemee Baik
Managerial Director | David Tauler
Cinematographer, Editor, Colorist | Zhibo Lai
Camera Persons | Koichi Take, Brad Baerwald
Choreographer | Connor Walsh
Dancer | Soo Youn Cho
Photographer | Anthony Lyon
Costume Designers | Alison Miller, Serge Ovechko

Category: Arts | Performing Arts | Dance