Seoul Metropolitan Ballet Opens Season as Dance Market Gains Momentum

[The Financial News] While K-pop and musicals continue to drive the domestic performing arts market, the dance sector posted particularly strong growth last year.
According to the "2025 Performing Arts Market Ticket Sales Analysis Report" released by the Korea Arts Management Service on the 16th, total ticket sales in the performing arts market in 2025 reached 1.7326 trillion won, up 18.8% from the previous year. Dance grew 29.5%, recording 26.7 billion won in sales.
Observers say the launch of the Seoul Metropolitan Ballet, the opening of the GS Arts Center, and a steady stream of international contemporary dance works touring Korea have together pushed the dance market into a new phase of expansion. This trend is expected to continue this year.■ Seoul Metropolitan Ballet opens season with "Bliss & Jackie"From the 14th to the 22nd, the Seoul Metropolitan Ballet is opening its season at Sejong M Theater with a double bill of Johan Inger’s "Bliss" and Sharon Eyal & Guy Behar’s "Jackie." "Bliss" is Inger’s signature work, which had its Asian premiere last year, now returning as part of the company’s repertoire. "Jackie," first staged by Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) in 2023, is being introduced to Korean audiences for the first time.
Founded in 1959, NDT is regarded, alongside Stuttgart Ballet (1961) and Cullberg Ballet (1967), as one of the key hubs of European contemporary ballet.
Dance researcher Ok Hee Jeong explained, "If early member Hans van Manen is like a pillar of contemporary ballet, choreographers such as Johan Inger have established themselves as mainstream figures after working across all three companies."
Sharon Eyal is a world-renowned choreographer who emerged from Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company. Together with her husband and artistic producer Guy Behar, she founded the S-E-D Dance Company and has built a distinctive choreographic universe.
"Jackie" features male and female dancers in skin-tight costumes, performing under stark lighting that emphasizes light and shadow, as if engaged in a collective ritual that foregrounds the aesthetics of the body. Set to intense, repetitive techno music, their ensemble work—marked by subtle trembling and vibration—comes across as both sensual and uncanny, radiating a primal energy.
At the press conference on the 10th, Eyal described herself as "more of a dreamer than a choreographer." She added, "I love to dance and I love to share that with people. It feels like that is why I came into this world. Dance is about freedom, connection, and emotion."
Her choreographic process also begins with improvisation in her own body. Dancers analyze video recordings of Eyal’s movements, while she experiments with and structures countless combinations to complete the choreography.
Dancer Nam Yunseung noted, "We keep awakening every nerve and sense, and work to translate that directly into the dance."
Emphasizing that "life and creation are not separate," Eyal explained, "The act of dancing itself is what matters. You have to move in order to create." She also urged audiences to feel free in their interpretations of the work. "There is no need to understand only what the creator intended," she said. "What is important is that the audience experiences emotion." Regarding the skin-colored costumes, she commented, "The costume is like another layer of skin."■ Anticipated programs at LG Arts Center Seoul and GS Arts CenterLG Arts Center Seoul will present international dance productions this year that weave together reality and fantasy into highly original worlds. First, Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite will visit Korea with "Assembly Hall" (June 5–7), which won the 2025 Laurence Olivier Awards prize for Best New Dance Production. This will be followed by "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (June 12–14), the work that established Alexander Ekman’s reputation and led to his later piece "Hammer."
Shin Min-kyung, programming manager at LG Arts Center Seoul, said, "We wanted to show that dance is not a difficult, abstract genre that requires specialized technical knowledge to understand, but a form that can draw audiences in through solid storytelling and a clearly defined world." She continued, "After causing a sensation in the performing arts scene last year with 'Hammer,' choreographer Ekman will this time realize a large-scale, visually striking spectacle in a completely different density for the main stage."
Also drawing attention is "Rothko" by Polish avant-garde director Łukasz Twarkowski. Running for a full four hours, this highly anticipated work for the second half of the year combines theater, technology, and live cinema, using dazzling stagecraft and powerful mise-en-scène to relentlessly probe the boundary between the "real" and the "fake" in a rapidly changing world.
As part of its "2026 GS Arts Center Artists Series," GS Arts Center will present a multifaceted program that surveys more than 30 years of artistic experimentation by British choreographer Wayne McGregor, an icon of innovation in both art and technology.
Kevin O'Hare, artistic director of The Royal Ballet, said of McGregor, "As resident choreographer at The Royal Ballet, he has completely reshaped the landscape of dance," adding, "Through collaborations across art, science, and technology, he is leading the contemporary arts scene."
A recipient of the Laurence Olivier Awards’ distinguished service award in dance in 2026, McGregor will return to Korea for the first time in nine years with his company to present the Korean premiere of "Deepstaria" (March 27–28). In addition to the performance, there will also be an exhibition and workshops.



jashin@fnnews.com Shin Jin-a Reporter