Imaginative and atmospheric with striking visual images, there is much to recommend in Jajack Movement’s Sleeper, choreographed by Kim Yumi. It is an allegorical tale tackling the climate crisis with shamanistic ritual and dance, both traditional Korean and contemporary.
A healing ritual to release pain
Sounds of thunderous waves suggest the oceans are rising as three bedraggled females in black, like creatures destined to drown, crawl or drag each other towards a large transparent box covered in cling film. Curled up on the floor inside is a half-visible man. This is the Sleeper, representing humankind, who is responsible for the climate crisis and must wake to save the world.
As he tears his way out of the box, the females return in long white dresses, symbolising purity, and enact a shamanistic ritual involving bangwool (bells), and gopuri (knot-tying) - here represented as long wide sashes of blue, red, and yellow, a healing ritual to release pain.
There are arresting images: the box radiating light as if set on fire; the man’s face and outstretched arms against the cling film, desperate to escape; the virgins bent over their tinkling bells, turning this way and that. The choreography is simple, more like physical theatre than contemporary dance, though the man’s solo, as his trembling builds up to frantic shaking, creates a powerful climax. Following this, the ritual knot-tying scene in which the females wind the colourful sashes around his body, though a beautiful image, lacks emotional drama, and the show ends with a sense of bathos.
