Ballerina Seohee. He is the first Korean dancer to be active in the American Ballet Theater (ABT), the world's national ballet company and the national ballet company. Seohee returned home a while ago. This is to organize the preliminary round of the prestigious American Ballet Competition'Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP)' in Korea.

YAGP (Youth America Grand Prix) is the world's largest ballet competition for ballet students aged 9 to 19 (https://yagp.org/). After qualifying in each country, the finals will be held in New York. Seohee founded the'corporation corporation Seohee' in 2015 and holds a YAGP Korean qualifier every year. (Seohee Corporation's homepage http://www.heeseofoundation.org/yagpkorea/) After

qualifying and winning the New York Final, you will receive a scholarship and an opportunity to join a leading ballet company. The representatives of the dancers are American ABT, Royal Ballet of England, Paris Opera of France, Mariinsky of Russia, and Bolshoi Ballet. Seohee also received an award at this competition when she was an international student, and was the reason for entering ABT. While studying abroad, I naturally learned the culture of donation, and I want to help Korean students have more opportunities, so I visit Korea every year.


Seo Hee appeared in the performance culture podcast'Curtain Call' of the news room that SBS picked up on the 20th and introduced the back story of running a ballet competition in the context of Corona 19. Now that anti-corruption measures have been strengthened to prevent the spread of Corona 19, YAGP Korea has almost never been able to qualify. Nevertheless, it was Korea's advanced IT infrastructure that made the International Competition possible.

Seohee said,

"Thanks to the Korean IT system, I switched to a contest that was almost canceled online. I became the first online ballet competition in Korea."

Finally, Seoul Cyber ​​University provided support to use the online class infrastructure for online competitions. The online competition was a painting that even a veteran ballerina, Seo Hee, who went to various stages in various countries, never thought of. We made it possible to judge in many ways, such as shooting once on the stage and once in the studio, and changing the camera angle.

"If you live, you have to judge in a short period of time, but you can see it again in the video, so there was also an advantage that the screening was personal and detailed."

Ballet is an art that must be seen and felt in the field, but in the unavoidable situation of the spread of Corona 19, the jury who was abroad was forced to watch the applicant's dance through the video. Is that this has been a great help.


Seohee introduced another unexpected harvest. The judges, who are the directors of international ballet teams or teachers of ballet schools, did not have to come to Korea to save money. This year, 41 schools and 14 ballet companies participated in the competition to watch students, but it was said that they were able to show Korean students to more people while online. The live performance was filmed and sent to the judges overseas.

After the Corona 19 crisis in mid-March, the entire American Ballet Theater (ABT), including Seo Hee, continues to rest without promise. The most unfortunate thing was that the spring season, which was going to be held at Lincoln Center from May to July, was canceled. The ballet team sent a mini floor for self-practice to help dancers maintain their best condition. It is a kind of rubber plate designed to wear and practice point shoes (toe shoes).

"After encountering the report that the performance was postponed indefinitely, I practice yoga at home under a rubber mat and practice jumping."

Seohee spends more time with her family in Korea and returns to New York again later this month. The original ballet season starts in September, but it is still unclear whether it will resume. First of all, we plan to work with ballet dancers to prepare online performances to encourage hospital staff and patients in New York.

You can listen to the full interview with Seohee Ballerina in the SBS podcast'Curtain Call'. Curtain Call is a podcast that specializes in culture and performing arts in the'Listening to News Room' series, and is performed by SBS Kim Soo-hyun's performance journalist and Chan-min Park's announcer. The'Curtain Call' podcast can be heard on the SBS News homepage and various audio platforms such as Naver Audio Clip, Pod Bread, and Apple Podcast.