Eun Jung Choi-Gonzalez ~ photo Steven Schrediber

Born in Korea, Eun Jung Choi-Gonzalez grew up learning the traditional dances of her country.  She moved to the United States in 1991, later graduating from North Carolina School of the Arts.  As a dancer, she has performed nationally and internationally with many companies and choreographers, such as Mark Dendy, the Limon Dance Company, Sean Curran, and MIRO Dance Theatre.

Choi-Gonzalez founded the Da-Da Dance Project in 2007 with Guillermo Ortega.  Starting with just the two of them, they created dynamic, physical, and completely contemporary material.  Now the company has expanded, maintaining its original characteristics as Choi-Gonzalez plays with space, shape, and intelligent phrases using her unique movement vocabulary. Her work has been performed at contemporary spaces and festivals such as San Diego’s Sushi Contemporary Performance and Visual Arts, Danspace Project, Dumbo Dance, Festival Mexico, and the Now Festival.

Her piece, Ploy, created in 2008 evolved from her long-term collaboration with a magician, a multimedia artist, a sonic designer, and a lighting designer. The piece describes a physicality and theatricality where the dancers navigate the environment using words, phrases, along with the choreographer’s beautifully developed movement phrases.

Choi-Gonzalez has said that Ploy is meant to redefine and reconstruct the threshold between reality and illusion.  Whatever we read into the work may be personal, as is true with contemporary art most of the time, and only adds to its unique mystery and beautifully executed delivery.

Named one of Dance Magazine’s Top 25 to Watch in 2012, Eun Jung Choi-Gonzalez also is a resident teacher at Philadelphia’s nEW Dance Festival.