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SOOMI KIM - performer, creator of Lee/gendary

Korean born actor/multidisciplinary artist SOOMI KIM has been performing in a diverse range of venues and artistic disciplines for most of her life. Most recently she performed in HERE Theater's Culturemart 2008 (festical of new works) for the second year in a row with HERE Arts Resident Program artists Ex.p girl's newest show, Paris syndrome. In September 2007 she performed with composer/choreographer Grisha Coleman's echo::system - the desert, which premiered at the New Hazlett Theater in Pittsburgh, PA. In June 2007 she was selected as one of the few NYC individual artists to present her original performance piece, Lee/gendary at the First National Asian American Theater Festival held in New York City. Lee/gendary was also presented at The American Living Room Festival '06 (presented by HERE Theater) at the 3Legged Dog theatre. Other recent credits: Ex.p girl's 10 Plates at HERE in Oct. '07, (10 Plates was also a part of Prelude festical of New Works 2006) and The Beautiful directed by Marlies Yearby (choreographer for Rent) presented at Dance Theatre Workshop's digiral lab. She has performed and toured extensively as a martial artist/actor with Fred Ho in principal roles in Voice of the Dragon (BAM's Next Wave Festival and 2003 U.S. tour) and V.O.D. 2 at the Apollo Soundstage. Additional credits and venues include: N.Y.T.W. (readings of works by playwright Julia Cho's BFE and 99 Histories), E.S.T., Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Source, LaMaMa E.T.C. (first floor and Annex), the Kraine, Town Hall, Nuyorican Poets' Cafe, Lincoln Center Institute (workshop of Liz Swado's Inside Out), Denver Center Theatre (Pavel Dobrusky's Fables), and the Ordway Music Theatre (Worth Gardner's Wizard of Oz). Other works include commercials, voice-overs, industrials, print ads, stunt double fighting and independent film. Television appearances: Law and Order (Detective Shimura), Guiding Light, MTV and MTV2. After graduating from the Circle in the Square Professional Training Program, she continued her acting training in Meisner technique with David Perry.

Other original performance (aside from Lee/gendary): Bruce Lee: Inside the Lost Interview, (Nuyorican Poets' Cafe), Daydream (Westpark Church) The Metronome (Dia Center for the Arts) and Moni's Class (Circle in the Square Dance concert). She is a member of a martial arts performance troupe called the "Art of War" a.k.a. "Go!" (Empire Entertainment) and has performed in nearly 20 live industrial shows, including a television show in Beirut, Lebanon. A former competitive gymnast, she works as a gymnastics/dance coach and has choreographed over 20 floor routines for competing gymnasts. As a dancer, she has performed in numerous theatrical productions, concerts, and choreographed all the movement in her aforementioned original pieces. Her martial arts training includes: Wing Chun, boxing, Wu Shu, Capoeira, basic staff work and nanchakus. Her movement style has evolved into a powerful and unique hybrid of dance, martial arts and gymnastics. Soomi is a recent recipient of the Urban Artist Initiative (UAI) grant.

Artistic statement
Thoughts on original work:

The quest to cultivate my personal artistic voice is the most recent evolution in my performance history. I enjoy the process of collaboration and am drawn and inspired by themes that are identity driven and often ones that straddle lines; be it cultural, gender or race. I find myself intrigued by discovering links and collisions in biographical and autobiographical experiences. I do not label myself as an activist or feminist per se, but these ideas lie inherent in my work as a first generation Korean American female performing artist. Whether I am playing Bruce Lee or stripping and playing saxophone on a trampoline, the work does not set out to be statement oriented, but it becomes so because it challenges perceptions of roles and stereotypes of Asian women. I often refer to the notion of cultural and societal oppression vs. individuality and freedom of expression. In Metronome (my first original solo multidisciplinary piece) I explore this theme via music, utilizing classical versus improvisation as an allegory for creative expression vs. the confining structure of written music.

Since jazz music has had such a huge influence on my life, I am in the process of finding a way where the structure of performance, theatre and musical improvisation can co-exist. Although I'm not classically trained, I feel I have the soul of a dancer and am just discovering the wonderful visions of dance theatre artists like William Forsythe and Pina Bausch. These works transcend race, conventions and create worlds where dance, theatre, music/sound design and visual art are seamlessly interwoven. As an audience member and performer, when innovative stories are met with passion, strong vision, excellence and a sense of humor, it is the most exciting to me.

I am at the beginning stages of developing a new interdisciplinary dance theater piece based in the writings of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's epic poem DICTEE, directed by Suzi Takahashi, video by Chris McClain.