WHITE WAVE Dance Artistic Director, Young Soon Kim, To Receive 2023 Bessies Angel Honoree Award
The Bessies recognize the steadfast players who have long dedicated their careers and lives to the field of dance.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Sep. 22, 2023
WHITE WAVE Dance's artistic director, Young Soon Kim is among The Bessies 2023 Angel Honorees, alongside adrienne maree brown, Gus Solomons jr, and Lane Harwell. The New York Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, are awarded to individuals who have made an immeasurable impact on the dance and performance field through their crucial contributions as a result of continued dedication and support. The award will be presented at the Bessies Angel Party at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 111 Amsterdam Avenue, New York NY, 10023, NYC on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 from 6:30pm-9pm.
The Bessies is honoring dance and performance on an even deeper level as they move forward, to recognize the steadfast players who have long dedicated their careers and lives to the field of dance. Having followed Young Soon Kim's work and contributions to the field, the Bessies will celebrate the significance of their accomplishments and all they continue to strive for the artform: from 22 years of presenting the Dumbo Dance Festival, to supporting small dance companies and emerging artists, to their support of dance in Brooklyn and beyond.
Event Schedule:
6:30PM Cocktail Hour
7:00PM Hors D'oeuvres
8:00PM Presentation of Angel Award to Honorees
Tickets available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-bessies-2023-angel-party-tickets-667911038897?aff=oddtdtcreator
WHITE WAVE Dance will perform excerpts from one of our signature works, "Eternal NOW" which premièred at BAM's Fisher stage in 2014, was recorded under a Jerome Robbins grant, and was inducted into the permanent collection right here the NY Public Library for the Preforming Arts at Lincoln Center!
About the Artist
Young Soon Kim, Artistic Director of WHITE WAVE Dance, is a nationally and internationally acclaimed choreographer, whose work has been hailed for its exhilarating, visually stunning, and emotionally rich phrases and textures.
In addition to her role as a performer and Artistic Director, Ms. Kim created a series of dance festivals soon after inaugurating the WHITE WAVE John Ryan Theater in DUMBO, Brooklyn, in 2001. She has since become one of the most recognized producers/curators in NYC and has also served as a juror for NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Ms. Kim and Company performed at BAM Fisher, Joyce Theater, Kennedy Center, Dance Theater Workshop, Jacob's Pillow, American Dance Festival, 1988 Summer Olympics World Dance Festival (Korea), just to name a few. In June 2021, the Korean Arts Council, which manages the archive for famous artists, chose Young Soon as the first active Artist outside of Korea in all genres inducted into the archive.
Recently, her short film "iyouuswe II, A Dance Film," an adaptation of WHITE WAVE's "iyouuswe" (read as I-You-Us-We-two) which first premiered in 2017 at the 2017 La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, was selected as finalist for the 2022 Cannes International Film Festival, Paris International Short Festival, Vancouver Independent Film Festival and an OFFICIAL SELECTION at the 2021 London International Short Film Festival, Espoo Digi-Dance International Film Festival (Finland) and Experimental, Dance, Music Film Festival (Canada).
"There are people who simply have a lot of energy, and the Korean-born choreographer Young Soon Kim is clearly one of them." - Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times
About WHITE WAVE Dance
Formed in 1988, WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company (WHITE WAVE Dance) strives to inspire audiences through multi-dimensional dance productions reflecting themes and philosophies both modern and timeless. Our mission is to be a potent stimulus for change and expansion of the dance/arts world through the production of dance concerts, classes, residencies, and education. For more information, visit whitewavedance.org.
About WHITE WAVE
Formed in 1988, WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company (WHITE WAVE) strives to inspire audiences through multi-dimensional dance productions reflecting themes and philosophies both modern and timeless. Our mission is to be a potent stimulus for change and expansion of the dance/arts world through the production of dance concerts, classes, residencies, and education. Artistic Director Young Soon Kim's vision is expansive, challenging the threshold of dance, music, theater and visual art, surging forward to create new possibilities. Ms. Kim creates works of vision and movement language in reverence and awe of novelty that challenge and broaden the boundaries of dance. We provide both emerging and established choreographers/companies with a NYC venue where they can congregate, create, rehearse and present new dance works through our festivals.
Mission and a brief history of WHITE WAVE
Founded by Korean-born Young Soon Kim in 1988, the WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company is dedicated to inspiring audiences through multi-dimensional dance productions reflecting themes and philosophies both modern and timeless. We constantly strive to be a potent stimulus for progress and evolution within the dance/arts world. By producing dance concerts, festivals, and educational activities, WHITE WAVE Dance provides both nascent and seasoned choreographers/companies with an encouraging environment where they can create, collaborate, and present new works in the undisputed capital of world dance, New York City.
WHITE WAVE created DDF in 2001 in response to the dance community's need for performance opportunities that would not only present, but also produce, the work of rising choreographers at minimal expense for the artist. The festival is now recognized as New York's most prestigious gathering of pioneering choreography, encouraging experimentation, creativity, and originality.
To date, WHITE WAVE Dance has proudly presented over 3,000 choreographers/dance companies and over 22,500 performers to a total of more than 90,500 audience members.
WHITE WAVE's programs are supported, in part, by public funds from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts, The New York Community Trust's NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund, Dance/NYC's Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund, Howard Gilman Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Mosaic Network & Fund, John Ryan COMPANY, and Individual Arts Supporters like you.
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