SSIREUM

MODEUN COMPANY

  • A scene from <SSIREUM>. On a sand ring against a dark background, two dancers in white hanbok grapple in a ssireum hold. One lifts the other so that their body arcs through the air, a blue satba belt and red cloth streaming behind them as sand scatters.
  • A scene from <SSIREUM>. A circular sand ring edged with red and navy fabric fills the centre of a wide stage. Two people grapple face down at its centre while dancers in white sit or stand around them, watching. Fragments of blue video are projected on the back wall.
  • A scene from <SSIREUM>. Four dancers in white jackets and trousers stand on the sand ring with their backs to the audience, one arm raised. Patterned panels in orange, green and pink are set into the backs of their jackets.
  • A scene from <SSIREUM>. Two dancers in white crouch low on the sand ring and reach out toward each other. At the right, another dancer films them on a mobile phone, and the footage appears live on two screens behind against a red background.
  • A scene from <SSIREUM>. Two dancers in white grip each other's satba belts and strain against one another on the sand ring. As one tries to throw the other, sand flies high into the air, the blue and red belts tangled between them.

 

  • Choreography & Director Kim Modeun
  • Genre Dance
  • Date 10.14.Wed 8pm 10.15.Thu 8pm
  • Accessibility Non-verbal
  • Rating 7 and above
  • Venue Sogang University Mary Hall
  • Duration 70 min.
  • Premiere 2025 Sogang University Mary Hall Main Hall (ARKO Performing Arts Creation Initiative Selection), Seoul, South Korea
  • Tickets 40,000 won

 

Figures burst out of the painting, transforming the theater into a living ssireum arena charged with breath and cheers.

Introduction

<SSIREUM> expands Korea’s traditional wrestling sport into contemporary performance, bringing together movement, video, archival materials, and audience participation. Inspired by Kim Hong-do’s genre painting <Ssireum>, the work draws the wrestling ring out of the picture and into the present, bringing it to life through dynamic movement and breath.

Drawing on the movements of actual ssireum, the dancers continuously shift the balance of force as they push, resist, pull, and lean into one another. As the performers face one another, the tension of competition gives way to relationships sustained through mutual dependence and a broader portrait of community.

Historical images, archival records, and interviews intersect with the performers in the ring, while live cameras move between the stage and the audience, generating unpredictable moments. As the audience’s breath and cheers enter the performance, the theater ultimately transforms into a living pan—a shared arena of gathering and play.

Beyond victory and defeat, <SSIREUM> speaks to how we live today: pushed back yet holding our ground, leaning on one another, and rising again.

Choreography & Director

Kim Modeun

Kim Modeun is a choreographer and director who observes contemporary life and translates it into physical and theatrical language. Grounded in the physical vocabulary of contemporary dance, he brings tradition, sport, media, and technology into dialogue, continually expanding the scope of his creative practice.

His major works include <Goliath in the Water>(2017), <PISTE: Eight Moments>(2022), <On the Rock>(2023), <Thread and Iron: String of the Body>(2024), <Palm Palm>(2024), and <SSIREUM>(2025).

In 2022, <PISTE: Eight Moments> was officially invited to the Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF), and he received the Best Concept Award in Italy. His performances and dance films have been presented at major theaters and festivals in Korea and in more than twenty cities abroad, including those in the United Kingdom, Estonia, and the United States.

Production

MODEUN COMPANY

MODEUN COMPANY is a performing arts company that connects different times and worlds through the infinite potential of the body, developing distinctive genres and theatrical vocabularies. With the body at the center of its creative practice, the company organically brings together movement, music, narrative, stage mise-en-scène, and technology to create performances with a new sensory language.

Its ongoing projects include a sports series that brings fencing, climbing, and ssireum to the stage, as well as the Modeunization of Tradition series, which moves across traditional music, sport, and food. More recently, the company has expanded its creative territory into the cosmos, quantum science, and literature. Each work develops its own performance language through rigorous preliminary research, interviews, and the creation of a movement methodology specific to the subject.

Moving across theater productions, street arts, site-specific performances, dance films, and media-based work, MODEUN COMPANY demonstrates the possibilities of body-centered performance in any form. The company offers audiences new sensory experiences while continually proposing where the body and the performing arts might go next.

Credits
  • Choreography & DirectorKIM Modeun
  • Structure & ResearchJEON Ganghee
  • CastKang Seongryong, No Eunhee, Park Seohyun, Kim Dohyun, Kim Hyunjin, Lee Jihye, Lee Eorin
  • Music DirectorCHOI Hyewon
  • Media ArtLEE Root
  • Stage DesignJEONG Seungjun
  • Lighting DesignKIM Gyeongho
  • Stage ManagerKim Jisoo
  • Sound DirectorKim Taeyeon
  • Costume DesignCHOI Insook
  • Video SystemWILL U ENTERTAINMENT
  • Teaser & Video ArchiveYEONDU PICTURES
  • PhotographerCHOI Geunwoo
  • Graphic DesignLEE Hansu
  • Planning & ManagementKIM Hyeyeon
  • Project CoordinatorsKim Yeeun, Kim Haeun, Choi Yujin
  • International RelationsJin Yim
MODEUN COMPANY

MODEUN COMPANY is a performing arts company that connects different times and worlds through the infinite potential of the body, developing distinctive genres and theatrical vocabularies. With the body at the center of its creative practice, the company organically brings together movement, music, narrative, stage mise-en-scène, and technology to create performances with a new sensory language.

Its ongoing projects include a sports series that brings fencing, climbing, and ssireum to the stage, as well as the Modeunization of Tradition series, which moves across traditional music, sport, and food. More recently, the company has expanded its creative territory into the cosmos, quantum science, and literature. Each work develops its own performance language through rigorous preliminary research, interviews, and the creation of a movement methodology specific to the subject.

Moving across theater productions, street arts, site-specific performances, dance films, and media-based work, MODEUN COMPANY demonstrates the possibilities of body-centered performance in any form. The company offers audiences new sensory experiences while continually proposing where the body and the performing arts might go next.

  • The richly layered ‘representation on stage’ was ultimately directed toward the ‘audience’.
    — Lee Jihyun, dance critic, webzine Choom (Dance), 2026
  • A portrait of contemporary society reflected through the lens of ssireum.
    — Choi Chanyeoul, dance critic, 2026