REVIEW: 1 Degree Celsius - The Body as a Measure

© 2025 SPAF (Seoul Performing Arts Festival)

When Sung Im Her first steps onto the stage, she runs lightly around the space, small leaps breaking through her steps, the air tense with anticipation. There is no music at first. What draws the eye immediately are the lights: thirty-two spotlights stacked in tiers at the back of the stage, designed by Young Uk Lee. Their golden beams glow softly towards the audience, as if the performance is gathering its heat. The costume, designed by Mio Jue, reflects this light beautifully. In earthy greens, browns, blues and beiges flecked with silvery fragments like scattered foil or torn leaves, it shimmers as the dancer moves, breathing with a natural rhythm.

Then Sung Im Her leaves the stage, and six dancers take over. The atmosphere thickens. Their movements are deliberate, their steps landing one by one, bodies swaying forward and back in a trembling rhythm that evokes drifting ice - heavy, alive, breathing. Sometimes they crawl, sometimes they fall and rebound again, their motion flowing like weather, from turbulence to still air.

Their walking sequences radiate a captivating fascination. Groups move in synchrony, walking straight, turning, dividing and meeting again, the geometry of their patterns carrying an enigmatic logic, both organic and mechanical. Occasionally, one dancer breaks away into a brief solo before folding back into the ensemble; at other times, pairs and trios emerge in asymmetrical dialogue.

What stands out most is the precision of their movements, the way rhythm and stillness echo through each body. As the sound design by Husk Husk and Lucy Duncan intensifies from near-silence to deep, pulsing percussion, the dancers reveal extraordinary control. Their bodies transcend gender, multiplied and defiant, embodying life’s physical essence and vibrating with energy.

Towards the end, all the lights blaze fully, pouring directly into the audience. What was once gentle becomes almost unbearable, a glare that confronts and overwhelms. Suddenly, darkness and applause rise around it. In the lingering dimness, faint shadows continue to move, and the sound of breathing hangs in the air. The dancers remain together as if life itself has not let go.

1 Degree Celsius is Sung Im Her’s choreographic response to the climate crisis. It speaks through motion, repetition and exhaustion. The work simmers and intensifies, a persistent reminder that the planet’s heat and our responsibility cannot be ignored.

★★★★

For more information, please visit: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/sung-im-her-1-degree-celsius/

Credits

Choreographer: Sung Im Her
Rehearsal directors: Ji Hye Ha, Eu Seul Lee
Lighting designer: Young Uk Lee
Sound designer: Husk Husk, Lucy Duncan
Stage manager Sang Ji Choi
Costume designer: Mio Jue
Costume assistants: Guimarães-Walker, Sasha Karadzhinova, Sophie Barnard
Produced by Jin Yim (KR), Uprise Rebel (UK)
Sung Im Her presents