Jungwoong Kim: what we have, that’s enough

what we have, that’s enough is a series of five improvised performances curated by Studio 34's artist-in-residence Jungwoong Kim. Each performance will present a different configuration of artists from diverse disciplines—dancers/movers, vocalists, instrumentalists, designers, visual artists—in spontaneous and continuous improvisations among two to five artists. They will explore what possibilities can emerge when various types of improvisers commit to being present for and responsive to one another. Short talks and informal discussions will invite audience members and performers to exchange thoughts and observations on how practices of improvisation can build awareness, trust, and connection.

Performance dates are:

• Saturday, January 11 @ 5:00 PM with Ben Bennett (percussion)
• Sunday, February 2 @ 7:00 PM (other performers TBA)
• Saturday, March 1 @ 7:00 PM (other performers TBA)
• Saturday, April 19 @ 7:00 PM (other performers TBA)
• Saturday, May 24 @ 7:00 PM (other performers TBA)

This first performance will feature Jungwoong Kim performing with percussionist Ben Bennett, followed by a reception and talkback.

Attend one, some, or all of the performances.

Admission to each is $10–$20 sliding scale, or get a series pass for $40!

About the artists:

Jungwoong Kim, born and raised in South Korea, has been a dance/performing artist, choreographer, curator, actor, theater choreographer and arts educator for 25 years. He is trained in Korean martial arts and traditional dance/ritual of Korean shamanism, which strongly inform his aesthetic and artistic vision.  Kim describes his practice as "a dynamic dialogue between my training and background in South Korean traditional dance and music and my embrace of western improvisation, especially Contact Improvisation, as a performance medium." His performance practice spans a spectrum of improvisational solos, durational ensemble work, site-specific engagement with visual and media artists, and characterizations for mainstage and experimental theater. He has performed with noted Contact Improvisors such as Karen Nelson and Christine Simpson. His work has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Independence Foundation, and the Knight Foundation among other funders.

Ben Bennett is a Philadelphia-based improvising percussionist who plays a small assortment of self-made drums, membranes, idiophones, and other objects which are continually rearranged in the course of playing, and sounded with techniques of the hit, rub, and blow varieties. A branching path of musical de-materialization has led to other forms of performance, including self-vitiating monologues, and the long and repetitive YouTube series, Sitting and Smiling and Walking and Talking. His most recent album, Music for Idiophones vol 1, deals with erratic stick-slip behavior of various basic materials. 

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