Boram Kim: Gwantong 18

A final solo. A body pushed to its limit.

Gwantong – to pierce, penetrate, or pass through 18 – the work’s eighteen-part choreographic structure

Raw, exhilarating and deeply personal, Gwantong 18 is a rare chance to encounter one of Korea’s most distinctive dance artists.

Acclaimed Korean choreographer and performer Boram Kim, founder of Ambiguous Dance Company comes to The Coronet with his darkly funny and physically demanding solo work, Gwantong 18, for its one and only international performance.

First premiered in Seoul in 2018, he revisits the solo that asks him to give everything. Requiring extraordinary stamina, emotional resilience, precision and vulnerability, Gwantong 18 is a piece Kim wants to perform before his body says no.

Structured in eighteen sections, the work moves through exhaustion, humour, repetition, memory and defiance, as Kim travels across a shifting landscape of objects from his life.

Rather than offering a narrative, Gwantong 18 invites audiences to experience dance as they might experience weather or nature: moment by moment, through rhythm, breath, movement and presence. What emerges is the expression of a simple but profound question: what does it mean to dedicate a life to performance?

Since their sold-out UK debut at The Coronet Theatre in 2022, Ambiguous Dance Company has built a remarkable relationship with London audiences and critics, returning in 2023 with Rhythm of Human and in 2024 with the immersive, site-specific The Belt.