January 14
Born Today:
Sun Ock Lee
Korean dancer Sun Ock Lee (1943-) began studying traditional Korean dance at the age of nine and relocated to the United States in 1969 and performed worldwide, forming the Lee Sun-ock Zen Dance Company in 1974. In the 1980s she published two volumes about Zen dance and she began collecting traditional Korean dance forms and coordinating dance festivals featuring Korean and Asian dance in New York. She teaches Zen Dance: Meditation in Movement, a combination of modern and zen practices, in Hawaii.
Also Born Today: Co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet, Gerald Arpino (1923-2008). Ballerina Moscelyne Larkin (1925-2012) of the Eastern Shawnee-Peoria Indian tribes, one of the “Five Moons” - a collection of Native American ballerinas dancing during the 20th century. She danced with both of the later Ballet Russe companies and founded the Tulsa Ballet. Canadian dancer/choreographer Pierre-Paul Savoie (1955-2021) founded PPS Danse in Montreal.
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Broadway Premiere: Fosse in 1999