Features Jungeun Kim Fresh Faculty

J.e. Kim is a visiting assistant professor of theater and dance. In a Q&A conversation, we discussed the roots of her passion for dance, her thoughts on what we can all learn from it, and the different meanings it has taken throughout her life.

like that.

JK: [Laughter]

CM: Wow, maybe that was kind of an extreme question.

JK: Yeah. That’s an extreme question. [Laughter]

CM: OK. Maybe what I mean is, What do you think is the power of dance, and movement?

Caelen McQuilkin: The first question I wanted to ask you is, how did you first become interested in dance?

Jungeun Kim: I don’t remember, but my mom said I always liked to dance. When I was a kid … I asked my parents, I wanted to take a dance class. But they said no, because we didn’t have enough money … But then, it was high school, [I] somehow discovered an open dance class. I went there with my friend, and I tried it, and then it was like the best thing ever … I went there with my school uniform … with a couple of other kids, we were just dancing to the loud music. You just get sweaty, and just laughing, and doing the things the instructor tells you to do. It felt like something just unlocked … I didn’t know what I was going for … I didn’t know why I was there, I didn’t know what that feeling was, I didn’t know what dance was — dance is — but then … I wanted to continue. So then I had to get a job to pay for the classes, which I did. And there’s something about ‘you work for it to get it,’ that … I didn’t feel like

So then I met people who had been in that art field much longer, much older folks. I didn’t want to go to college, because there’s not many schools that offer what I was taking — it was kind of more strict dance classes, like modern or ballet … [I wanted] sort of an open, just dance class. … So I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to college.’ But then all my older friends were like, ‘J.e., you have to go to college.’ And so I said OK … because I trust their input … They were advising me through their experience, because they didn’t go to college … They’d been in the industry a long time, so they see the value of education. Even if getting a job is just different, you’d be able to make connections, and meet different artists. So then I did [go to college], and I discovered a lot about different forms of dance, like modern, ballet, and improvisation. And then it just felt like my entire body was a sponge. I was just sucking in everything because it was so fun. I was very behind compared to other friends who had started dancing — for me, I started dancing when I was 18 — [they] started at six or a young age. So my knowledge in dance was very low.

CM: Something else I was curious about is, what are some of the other things that you hope students who take your class will learn, or at least start to think about?

JK: Learn how to listen. It’s really hard. But not just through your ear, listening that really lets your body to feel it … I think everybody has different ways to feel it, but sometimes we’re supposed to hear, and we get so caught up with specific goals that [we] need to reach, or that [we] would like to reach … but everything you do, you do with your body. So to be able to read, understand, and be able to pay attention to your body is … a really valuable lesson for us to have. If you can listen to yourself, not only just listening to others, but also being able to listen to yourself — often, people say, ‘Trust your gut’ [and] ‘What is your intuition telling you?’ And it’s like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know.’ But deep inside, you do know. You may not describe it, or you haven’t had a chance to explore it, but when you get to be vulnerable, when you get to be in that place, then, I don’t know, there’s an awakening. Not awakening — that’s not a very good way to say it — but you feel like tiny hearts coming out of you. I don’t know, it’s just … to listen.

CM: I’m curious if you also have any thoughts on how dance and movement, and everything you’re talking about can change the world, or change people’s lives, or something

JK: What do you think is the power of your writing?

CM: Hmm. I guess that it can make people see different perspectives. And more, actually, that it’s a way for people, and me, to communicate with each other. And understand that maybe you can never fully understand someone who has lived a different life than you, but it’s still worth trying to find ways that you can talk to each other, and look each other in the eyes from different places. If that makes sense?

JK: Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I second that.

CM: Wow. I guess that makes me think about dance in a new, cool way now.

JK: I mean, sometimes I wish it could become more accessible … I feel like there is more to offer. It still has too much of an image of what dance looks like, what dance should look like. I asked you, do you like to dance? And you said yes — it feels, in a way, that body language is a universal language. Like when you handshake, you don’t say, ‘should we handshake?’ you just do it. You hug people. There’s a very tangible relationship that you can have, and I love that I’m able to study that, I love that I’m able to share that. I feel like there’s more to it, I feel like it … I wish it was more accessible, without needing to have those skills or techniques. I wish we could see dance as it is, rather than take it apart. Meaning, dividing it — there are different styles, of course, that have different histories — but I wish we could see dance in a much bigger way, rather than just one style, this style and this style. It’s hard to undo it …Everything is so intertwined. There’s many roots, like what you mentioned about collecting different stories in a specific location or place, and you get to really create your own maps around how one story leads to the next story. I feel like it’s similar, from your experience, from your background and your culture, you get to weave around through things, and you get to learn about yourself. For me, I really get to learn about myself.

CM: I think the last question I wanted to ask you is, what are some of the things that you feel like you’ve learned dancing and teaching?

JK: What I’ve learned. Hmmm. Good question. It’s so hard to name things, because I am still learning. I feel like it’s a never-ending experience. You asked me about what I want students to get out of my class, and I think I said learn how to listen. So I guess for me, I feel that I am learning how to listen to whoever I’m dancing with. And how to offer things, when I see someone is needing. I’ve learned how to make friends, learned how to have a good time … through dancing, and through studying about it, teaching about it, watching about it, writing about it, it’s sort of made me question, ‘What if?’ ‘What else?’ There’s other possibilities. Like, ‘What if we do this?’ ‘What if [pulling a piece of paper out of a bowl on her desk] we danced about this for 15 minutes?’ Sort of like, it challenges me and I learn how to take those challenges without lying about it. Really learn how to be honest, be able to tell my story truthfully, without any decorating or anything. Or need to form something, need to perform it. I get to be really me. And I learned that through dancing. What is being me? How can I be present? Like, how I can be present with you right now. I don’t know if I could have done it if I wasn’t dancing.

—Caelen McQuilkin