If in Europe they fear dragons, in Asia they dance with them.

The dragon exists in the heavens with opposing roles and meanings in the East and the West. An eternal symbol, the Dragon embodies virtues and fear, creation and destruction, life and death. Revered in such extreme contrasts across different parts of the world, the Dragon stands as a mythological foundation for identities, beliefs, rituals, art, and even pop culture. And while myths cannot be disputed or corrected, because they exist to be reborn over and over again, the same does not entirely apply to the all-powerful and wise Dragon.

In the striking performance by choreographer Eun-Me Ahn, we see the Dragon as a symbol of a new beginning, a common denominator of several Asian cultures, and a chance for a shared reading of hope in a world of contradictions and discouragement.

On stage, eight Asian dancers, born in the Year of the Dragon at the dawn of the new millennium - use their bodies and identities to paint a portrait of contemporary Asia. But also of today’s globalized world, where prosperity is far from widely shared, opportunities are not so equal, cultures are not so open, and optimism is not so bold.

Between tradition and the future, six more dancers join the performance as holograms - because technology creates miracles no less than dragons do. A defining name in Korea’s avant-garde performing arts scene, Eun-Me Ahn once again showcases her effortless yet highly technical dance language, enriched with fantastic projections, extravagant costumes and forms, vivid colors, and music. In DRAGONS, we witness her ability to find beauty in contrast and the freedom to push the limits of dance as an art form.

Described as "a dragon dance in a thunderstorm," the performance carries, above all, hope, that humanity has the strength and courage to overcome the global upheavals that rage before it. It is precisely because of hope that Eun-Me Ahn invites dragons to dance on stage - Generation Z, the newly grown adults. Now it is their turn to find a new way forward.

In a world already, to some extent, dominated by contemporary Asian pop culture - from BTS to Blackpink and Squid Game - Eun-Me Ahn’s new performance demonstrates how the younger generation manages to carve out a place for traditional Korean dance within modern pop culture. DRAGONS features 13 Generation Z dancers from Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, and Malaysia, six of whom appear as holograms. Together, they create a new time-space inhabited by the mythical Dragon—a figure that, in Asian culture, symbolizes transcendental power, joy, and luck, while in the Western world, it is often associated with an evil force that must be vanquished.

And so, the stage is set for a captivating, burlesque, and sometimes weightless performance, resembling a kaleidoscope of forms, colors, and rhythms - an extravagant spectacle in the signature style of the “rebellious child” of Korean dance.

“Ah, the famous egg tart, the confrontation between tradition and modernity… How many artists have struggled to find a way to describe what is ultimately the fate of every creator? On one hand, to know, understand, and integrate what the ancients practiced; and on the other, to forget them, to overcome them, and to hope to discover something new.”

With this mindset, Eun-Me Ahn uncovers new, unexpected, and thrilling artistic paths. Her journey is marked both by the study and exploration of shamanic traditions and by the many years she spent in New York with Pina Bausch, who invited her multiple times to Wuppertal. She is a cosmopolitan figure, a pioneer of the avant-garde, but also the choreographer of the official opening ceremony of the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Daegu, Korea, with invitations from the world’s leading festivals and theaters. Eun-Me Ahn knows how to highlight the beauty of contrast, to traverse different artistic points, to play with the brightest colors before transitioning into solemn austerity, and to explore the subtlest nuances of androgyny.

“I am a choreographer who dances, designs costumes, creates sets, and works with my hands. This is my survival technique in a capitalist society. I am a dancer, and I spread happiness that cannot be bought with money. This is both my responsibility and my joy. Collaboration is my way of finding balance with other artists from different genres.” – shared Eun-Me Ahn in an interview with the Korean Times.

As a student, she participated in demonstrations that contributed to the end of the military regime in South Korea. She graduated in Fine Arts from the prestigious Ewha Womans University in Seoul, while simultaneously studying traditional Korean dance. One day, she encountered a shaman on the streets of Seoul, dancing and singing with his entire inner strength. That was when she realized that she had to create authentic art that came solely from within herself.

She later moved to New York, where she continued her studies at the Tisch School of the Arts and began working professionally in contemporary dance. Eun-Me Ahn made her debut with Paper Steps and founded her own company, Eun-Me Ahn Company, in 1988. Since then, she has created dance performances featuring professional dancers as well as non-professional performers, such as elderly women in Dancing Grandmothers and people with dwarfism in Daeshim Dance.

In 2000, she was invited to lead Korea’s national contemporary dance company, composed of forty-five dancers. She quickly won the love of the audience by introducing a universe filled with color, humor, and joy.

In France, her extravagant style was discovered in 2013 with the performance Princess Bari. She then became a regular guest at the Paris Quartier d’Été festival and Théâtre de la Ville, which presented a series of her works, from Dancing Grandmothers to Dancing Teen Teen, offering a contemporary snapshot of South Korean society.

In 2018, she once again captured global attention with her interpretation of North Korean dance (North Korea Dance by Eun-Me Ahn), a form that had remained invisible on the international dance scene for decades. In the same year, she became the first associate artist from an Asian country at the prestigious Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.