hankyoreh

The Korea National Ballet has decided to punish prima ballerina Kim Joo-won by reducing her pay for one month, for violating ballet company regulations which prohibit activities conducted outside the company without permission. The accusations began as a question of how the country’s finest ballerina could be so lewd as to appear topless in a fashion magazine, and it is why the company scurried to get its personnel committee together to respond. In doing so, however, the company avoided making a judgment on the issue at hand and instead focused on peripheral issues.

The ballet company may be impressed with itself for its cleverness in the way it has managed to satisfy Korean society’s hypocritical moral sensibilities, by avoiding direct controversy over how it is suppressing freedom of expression while in fact punishing Kim for her artistic expression. It was merely cunning, however, and not wise. Instead of facing the issue head on, it ended up being on the side of this that hurts artistic activity. It surely knows well enough that artists are naturally inclined to question social customs and perceptions and challenge moral controls.

The language of dance is the body and motion. Ballet in particular depends on a balanced body and refined movement. A dancer who has devoted every piece of their soul to these ideals has no reason to hide their body. The former top ballerina at the American Ballet Theater, Alessandra Ferri, as well as the world-renowned French ballerina, Sylvie Guillem, both revealed their bodies to the world, and the choreographer Jiri Kylian had ballerinas performing on stage wearing only skirts.

No society has moral regulations as strict as our society when it comes to the body. This is a country that used to crack down on people for the length of their skirts or the length of their hair. That does not happen any more, but oppression of the body has not fundamentally changed. This is a society that gets all worked up in a crying fuss when a high school art teacher puts a picture of his pregnant wife on his website. At the same time, Korea goes mad at the chance to get a peek at nudity. Our society pretends to think that the human body is sacred, buying and selling it in a whole host of different ways. Much about this pathological duality originates in the suppression of the body.

Bodies are the homes of human life. It is through the body that the health and beauty of life are revealed. Our society will be free from its voyeurism and hypocrisy when it is able to appreciate the beauty and preciousness of the human body. Kim says she is sorry for causing controversy. But is our society that has caused the controversy.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]