Seung Hwan Lee

Performer · Choreographer · Movement Developer · Physical Researcher

Active since 2015

Bio
Bio
ANIBODY
ANIBODY
Cockroach Kinetics
Cockroach Kinetics
Kids
Kids
Köperliche Protopien
Köperliche Protopien
Zusammen sind wir hier
Zusammen sind wir hier
Politicalness
Politicalness
Looking For Someone To Be
Looking For Someone To Be
12.09.2017
12.09.2017
Colonialism : The weight of sound
Colonialism : The weight of sound
Soliloquy
Soliloquy
Body Tunes
Body Tunes
Contact
Contact

Colonialism : The weight of sound

A duet about power, violence, and silence told through sound and movement.

One figure amplifies the sounds of consumption eating, dragging, breathing while the other receives what remains: noises, objects, pressure.

The piece reflects colonial structures through metaphor: Who is heard? Who is silenced? Who controls the narrative? The performers' interaction reveals the tension between voice and voicelessness, dominance and survival an echo of the historical and contemporary weight of colonial reality.

Performance Video

Credits

Choreographer: Seung Hwan Lee

Performer: Seung Hwan Lee, Mike Planz

Soliloquy

A solo unfolding like an inner monologue not spoken, but expressed physically.

Soliloquy reflects loneliness, inner conflicts, and the quiet search for meaning within oneself.

Without words, the body becomes the voice traversing layers of thoughts, feelings, and memories. Movements emerge and dissolve like fleeting reflections.

The piece does not seek resolution; instead, it creates space for vulnerability and presence in simply existing.

Performance Video

Credits

Choreographer & Performer: Seung Hwan Lee

Residency: Art Space stift Millstaat

Venue: Zukunft Tanzt festival in Gallus Theater Frankfurt

Politicalness

What does it mean for a body to be political? This piece investigates how political realities are not only spoken about but also felt, lived, and carried by the body in posture, tension, and breath.

Without an explicit narrative, Politicalness explores the subtle, often unconscious ways in which political awareness becomes embodied.

The work deliberately avoids slogans, drawing attention instead to presence and physical nuance as forms of resistance, critique, and reflection.

Performance Images

Politicalness Performance Image 1
Politicalness Performance Image 2
Politicalness Performance Image 3

Credits

Choreographer: Seung Hwan Lee

Performer: Seung Hwan Lee, Bar Gonen

Music: Seung Hwan Lee

Venue: Theater Felina Mannheim

12.09.2017

A solo piece exploring the aftereffects of trauma and the body's capacity to store memory. The work is based on the concept of the body as a living archive a place where emotions, memories, and disturbances are recorded beyond words.

Through fragile and raw movement, the performance investigates how personal and collective trauma manifests itself in breath, posture, rhythm, and silence.

The date 12.09.2017 remains intentionally undefined a symbol of lived experience, unresolved memory, and those formative moments that shape us but evade linguistic explanation.

Performance Video

Credits

Choreographer & Performer: Seung Hwan Lee

Voice: Magdalena Meier

Venue: Raw & Polished festival in Tanzentrale Nürnberg, Heidelberg Tanzbiennale festival in Unterwegs Theater

Looking for
someone to be

"Who do you want to be?" This question is not easy to answer. I've asked myself the same many times often without a clear response. But for me, the person I ultimately want to be is my "true self."

This journey is about discovering and embracing one's inner value and beauty rather than conforming to external expectations or societal roles. Compromise and adaptation can become routine, but in doing so, there's a risk of losing one's essence.

The piece explores these kinds of questions and inner dilemmas. It tells the story of a person who tries to live up to the image others have of them and loses themselves along the way.

"Looking For Someone To Be" is a reflection on our inner desires and human values. Through the solo journey of one figure on stage, the piece invites us to rediscover the beauty and meaning of self-acceptance.

Performance Videos

Short Version Trailer

Full Version Trailer

Performance Images

Looking For Someone To Be Performance Image 1
Looking For Someone To Be Performance Image 2
Looking For Someone To Be Performance Image 3
Looking For Someone To Be Performance Image 4
Looking For Someone To Be Performance Image 5

Critik

Looking For Someone To Be Critik

Credits

Choreographer: Seung Hwan Lee

Performer: Seung Hwan Lee & Peter Hinz

Music: Peter Hinz

Outside Eyes: Éric Trottier

Residency & Venue: LAB Mannheim

ANIBODY

Is the human also an animal or has instinct long been overridden by consumption, intellect, and cultural constructs?

Can we reconnect with the animal within us, and with the wilderness? ANIBODY explores these questions through movement and the body. It challenges us to consider whether our senses can help us rediscover instinctive behavior and whether this instinct, often suppressed by modern life, might offer new perspectives on survival in times of climate crisis, war, and cultural alienation.

The theme of survival runs throughout the piece from the survival of identities and ethnic groups during displacement, to the evolutionary adaptability of animals over millennia.

The piece asks whether a return to instinct in times of crisis is not a regression, but rather a reconnection to something original — a bodily intelligence that may not only secure survival, but also enable a new form of being.

Performance Video

Performance Images

Anibody Performance Image 1
Anibody Performance Image 2
Anibody Performance Image 3

Critik

Anibody Critik 2
Anibody Critik
Anibody Critik Screenshot

Credits

Choreographer: Seung Hwan Lee

Performer: Seung Hwan Lee, Laura Börtlein, Woo Sang Jeon

Residency: Heidelberg Choreography Centrum

Venue: Unterwegs Theater, LAB Mannheim, Theater Felina

Support: Kulture Amt Mannheim, LAFT BW

Cockroach Kinetics

In this work, the dancer embodies the cockroach — a creature that thrives in the shadows, surviving where others cannot. Through distorted movements, sudden stillness, and unpredictable bursts of energy, the performance explores resilience, adaptability, and the unsettling coexistence of disgust and admiration.

The cockroach becomes a metaphor for the parts of humanity we try to suppress: our raw instinct to survive, our ability to adapt to hostile environments, and the stubborn persistence of life itself. Moving between human and insect form, the piece blurs the line between repulsion and fascination, confronting the audience with the uncomfortable truth that we are not so different from the creatures we try to eliminate.

Performance Images

Cockroach Kinetics Performance 1
Cockroach Kinetics Performance 2

Credits

Choreographer & Performer: Seung Hwan Lee

Venue: Theater Felina Mannheim

Kids

This work embodies the world through a child's eyes — a place of endless curiosity, fearless play, and unfiltered emotions. Through spontaneous gestures, sudden changes of rhythm, and moments of wonder, the dancer channels the raw honesty and innocence that children carry naturally.

The performance invites the audience to step back into a state where joy comes without reason, sadness is expressed without hesitation, and every movement is a discovery. Between fragility and boundless energy, Like a Child reminds us of the purity we once knew — and asks what remains of it in us now.

Performance Images

Kids Performance Image 1
Kids Performance Image 2
Kids Performance Image 3

Credits

Choreographer: Seung Hwan Lee

Performer: Seung Hwan Lee, Woo Sang Jeon

Venue: Theater Felina Mannheim

Köperliche Protopien

Description to be added later

Performance Images

Köperliche Protopien Performance 1
Köperliche Protopien Performance 2
Köperliche Protopien Performance 3

Credits

Performer & Residency Participations: Seung Hwan Lee, Malika Ali

Concept & Idea: Malika Ali

Residency: Fo(u)r exchange residency Freiburg

Venue: SÜDUFER Freiburg

Profile

South Korea . Male . 1991 . Mannheim Germany

Education

K-ARTS SEOUL KOREA — BACHELOR, 2015

Dancer

2016-2018
Collaborated with Yoshiko Waki, Sebastian Elier, and the Deutsche Oper
2018-2019
Member of the ensemble at Gerhart Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz-Zittau
2019-2021
Member of the ensemble at Norrdans in Sweden
2022-PRESENT
Ongoing collaborations with La_Trottier Dance Company, Backstein-Produktion Haus, Saal Frei Stuttgart, Juliette Villemin and further more

Choreographer

2017
Solo work Unpaved Road received 2nd prize at the Netherlands Choreography Competition
1st prize and the Audience Award for Best Dance Solo at the Euro-Scene Competition in Leipzig
2021
Presented the solo piece Soliloquy at the ZUKUNFT TANZT Festival in Frankfurt
Continued choreographic research as part of a residency program in Heidelberg
2022
Premiered the trio ANIBODY, supported by LaFT BW and the City of Mannheim
2023
Solo work 12.09.2017 performed at the Tanzbiennale Heidelberg
2024
Looking for someone to be developed in collaboration with Lake Studios Berlin and LAB Mannheim. Participation in the Fo(u)r Exchange residency in Freiburg
2025
New production Colonialism : The weight of sound

Body Tunes

This project explores the relationship between movement qualities and sound through the creation of original music compositions. Each composition was developed in response to specific movement qualities, serving both as inspiration and as a practical training tool for dancers. By aligning sound with the textures, dynamics, and energies of physical expression, the project aims to enhance training effectiveness and deepen the connection between music and dance.

The research was supported by the DIS-TANZ-SOLO funding program and focused on how tailored music can guide, challenge, and expand a dancer's approach to improvisation and movement research. Through this process, the project highlights the potential of sound not only as accompaniment but as an integral partner in the development of movement vocabulary and artistic practice.

Movement Quality Compositions

Dynamic 1

Dynamic 2

Abstract 1

Abstract 2

Isolation & Robot 1

Isolation & Robot 2

Bounce & Groovy 1

Bounce & Groovy 2

Slow & Continuous 1

Slow & Continuous 2

Credits

Project Lead: Seung Hwan Lee

Research Support: DIS-TANZ-SOLO funding program

Focus: Movement quality and sound relationship, dance training enhancement

Zusammen
sind wir hier

Description to be added later

Performance Images

Zusammen sind wir hier Performance Image 1
Zusammen sind wir hier Performance Image 2
Zusammen sind wir hier Performance Image 3

Credits

Choreographer & Performer: Seung Hwan Lee, Malika Ali

Venue: Theater Felina Mannheim

Based in Germany, working internationally.

Available for performances, collaborations, residencies, teaching opportunities, and new choreographic projects.