About Us

Alive at Every Moment

Every performance is newly born at the moment with performing bodies.
Me, you, we, and our bodies are alive and breathe at every moment.
We realize the alive-ness of our body, when we move.

Blood, skin, body, and spirit remember where they used to be and what they are eager to create in union with breath and movement. Reflecting upon the past, drawing upon the present and reaching into the future, our performances are timeless.

Every moment of movement establishes new meaning and relationship. Improvisational body movements bring forth an alive-ness that breaks through the barriers of time and space. Each performance is fresh and is fueled by the power of our awakened body movements.

Artistic Director

Won-sun Choi

Won-sun Choi is the founder and artistic director of Born Dance Company. She earned a PhD in Dance History & Theory, from University of California, Riverside. Ms. Choi is a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst.  She is also a Certified Performer of Korean Traditional Dance for Seung-mu (Buddhist Monk dance).  She mastered many traditional artistic dances including Seung-mu, Salpuri-chum (long scarf dance), Janggeom-mu (long sword dance), and Mudang-chum (Shaman dance) from Mae-bang Lee as well as, Jindo-Buk-chum (Drum dance in Jindo), Jijeon-chum (Shamanic Ritual dance), and Korean traditional percussion music from Byung-chun Park.  (Both Mae-bang Lee and Byung-chun Park are Korean National Human Treasures designated by Korean government.)  She performed with these two dance masters several times in Korea and the United States.

Also, Ms. Choi has performed numerous Korean Creative dance pieces as a performer and choreographer in Kim Young-hee MUT Dance Company. After she moved to the U.S., she has been invited as a guest artist to several dance and cultural events and internationally performed both in Korea and the U.S. including 2009 Unknown Theater Dance Series, 26th Anatomy Riot, Cultural event in UCLA, UCR, Cal State University Northridge, Scripps College, and Goucher College.

She worked with several renowned artists and professors, including Wendy Rogers, Susan Rose, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Peggy Hackney, Janice Maiden and Ed Groff (Integrated Movement Studies faculty). She also collaborated with Dr. Rene Lysloff (electronic music composer) and Sapto Raharjo (Indonesian Gamelan music master). She and Sue Roginski (choreographer) collaborated for her recent multi-cultural performance projects Rendering series. Born Dance Company and she successfully completed the recent Korean fusion performance, “Rendering- At the Moment” in Unknown Theater in Hollywood. Her major choreography includes, but not limited to, “RenderingIII: Tal”(2009), “Life Journey v.2” (2009), “Jindo-Java” (2008), “Rendering I: Womb Revisited” (2006), “Rendering II: Life Journey” (2006), “Tri-colors” (2002), “Ponderousness of Latent Ambition” (1997), “Sound of My Heart” (1995), and “1.9.9.5.1.0.0.5” (1995). She received LA County Arts Commission Performance Grant, Ford Foundation Performance Grant, Unknown Theater Grant for New Choreography, Sung Family Funds for Korean Dance Performance, Gluck Fellowship as a Cultural Ambassador, UC, Riverside, Asian Studies Program and Dance Department, UCR, Sponsor for Korean Dance Performance.

She is now working as a guest choreographer in Santa Monica College. She is working on several new and multi-cultural dance projects with choreographers, Sue Roginski and Eric Kuper, and music composers, Dr. Rene Lysloff and Seung-hoon Oh.

Choreographers/Collaborators

Sue Roginski

Sue Roginski, MFA, is a teacher, choreographer, and performer who resides in Riverside California. For seventeen years, Sue lived and danced in San Francisco where she was a collaborating member of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company for ten years. She also performed and collaborated with STEAMROLLER, Navarette Y Kajiyama, Dandelion Dancetheater, Jo Kreiter, Mercy Sidbury, Stephanie Schaaf, and Christy Funsch. Sue has produced her own work, as well as performances to benefit Project Inform, Women’s Cancer Resource Center, and Breast Cancer Action. In 2001, Sue received a nomination for choreography (Isadora Duncan Awards, SF). In 2008, she presented Sandival’s Story: Chapter One at “Society of Dance History Scholars”. In addition to dancing with Won-sun, Sue also performs with Susan Rose.

Byoung-ju Yoon

Ms. Yoon is a choreographer, performer, and educator in the modern dance field in Korea. She has M.A. and B.A in dance from Ewha Womans University in Korea. She has worked as a main choreographer and performer in Made In Dance Company from 2000 to 2006. She worked with Ms. Eun-mi Cho, artistic director of Tam Dance Company, for about 4 years. She received the Grand Prize of Dong-a Dance Competition and the Grand Prize of Dance Competition from Korean Modern Dance Association. She has performed numerous times nationally and internationally and presented many outstanding choreographies including “Bird Bird …” (2007), “Half” (2006), “Walking into the Dawn” (2005), “Room of Law” (2005) “Will of People”(2001) and “Departure at Dawn” (2000). Especially, Ms. Yoon’s “Half”(2006) and “Room of Law” (2005) received the grant for outstanding choreography from the Korean Agency for Culture and Arts. She has collaborated with many renowned Korean artists, Yeon-su Lee, artistic director of Made in Dance Company, Ho-bin Park, artistic director of Kadu Dance Company, Mi-sook Jeon, a professor of Korean National University of Arts, School for Dance, and Jung-seop Yoon, a set-design artist. She currently works as a full time instructor for modern dance in Sunhwa Arts High School and collaborate with Won-sun Choi.

Ji-young Jung

Ji-young Jung has Master’s in M.Ed (Physical Education)  and B.A. in Dance from Ewha Womans University in Korea. After graduated, she joined “TAM” Dance Company as a performer and an artistic director for more than 10 years and has performed over 30 projects and performances in Korea and internationally. Also, she worked as an instructor in Sunhwa Arts High School and in Gukak National High School over 7 years, and worked in Shilhum Theatre as an artistic director. Her major choreography includes “Time-wrap” (2006), “Blue Monday” (2006), “One Way” (2005), “Butterfiy in Winter” (2003), and “A Mirror is Scaling” (2001).

 

Rendering II & III Project Group – Dancers/Collaborators

Rachel Holdt

Rachel began dancing as a competition ballroom dancer over twelve years ago. Since then, she has studied under many well known choreographers and dance instructors including Paula Naggi, Lori Torok, Sue Roginski, Julie Freeman, Rosie Trump, Kelli King, and Neil Greenberg. Rachel is trained in ballroom, tap, jazz and modern dance forms. Rachel has performed with the Menifee Dance Company at Mt. San Jacinto College where all aspects of dance production are trained and practiced.
Rachel currently attends the University of California, Riverside, where she is completing her Bachelor of Arts in dance. In addition to her studies in Riverside, Rachel also writes professionally for examiner.com as the Temecula Dance Examiner. Rachel is passionate about dance education and strongly feels that accessibility to the arts is critical in building an understanding of not only our culture, but also the development of global conversations as well. Rachel is grateful for the opportunities she has been given to pursue her career as a dancer and choreographer, and would like to thank all of her friends and family for their generous support in her endeavors.

Kijai Salimu

Kijai Salimu began her training at the Blackwell Dance Academy in Los Angeles, California at the age of 5 years old. She continued to dance and perform her talent at The Hal Jackson Talented Teens Internationals where she won 2nd and 1st runner-up in 1996 and 1997. She has performed company works with Radiance Dance Company and Versatility Dance Company, of which Kijai was a member for seven years. Her works include “A Tribute to Rosewood”, “A Tribute to Alvin Ailey”, and “What’s Going On” (the musical) produced by Mark Swinton, just to name a few. Kijai has worked professionally with Leah Bass-Baylis, Steven Smith, Frances Morgan-Chapman, Hinton Battle, Otis Sallid, Monika Deyampert, Sue Roginski, and Won-sun Choi. She currently attends Mount San Jacinto College and is a part of (MSJC) Dance Department. Kijai is pursuing an M.F.A. in dance.

 

Victoria Smith

Victoria has studied under many renown and notable choreographers including De-An and Linda Cotner, Wendy Rogers, Neil Greenburg, Kelli King, John Vaughan, James Bennett, Jo Dierdorff, and Mark Haines. She has been dancing and performing since 1992, and has training in tap, ballet, modern, east coast swing, hip-hop, jazz, salsa, flamenco, and musical theater dance. Victoria has performed and choreographed for countless fund-raising events and musicals for “Jump Dance and Performing Arts Center” and other organizations. While attending Riverside Community College (2005-2007), she found an interest in musical theatre and learned about stage directing and music from W. Buck Stevens and Brady Kerr. At Norco Theatre Conservatory, Victoria was a principal dancer and dance captain in many notable shows as Cabaret, Little Shop of Horrors, Grease, My Fair Lady, and Once Upon a Mattress in which she received a “Student of Distinction” award for her dancing. Victoria currently attends the University of California, Riverside for a Bachelor of Arts in dance. In spring of 2009, she was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Performance Award from the “Marius de Brabant Scholarship fund” and honored by the Chancellor and University Faculty with the “Dean’s Academic Distinction Award,” in recognition of holding an exceptional college GPA. Some of Victoria’s favorite experiences have been: collaborating with student choreographers on creative ideas, becoming a swing teacher, and experimenting with photography. She would like to thank the Lord, her husband and family for all their love, time, and support in letting her pursue her dream as a dancer.

Cydney Watson

Cydney started dancing at the age of twelve. Her primary style was hip hop, but being around so many dancers and performers made her want to expand what she could do with dance. During her freshman year of high school, she attended The School of Arts and Enterprise where she began to focus on dance and theater. Her mentor, Marissa Herrera, pushed her to further her dance abilities and introduced to various dance styles including salsa and swing. The following year, after she left the school, she pursued dance by joining the Swing Dance Club at her school and attending Studio Elite where she studied ballet, hip hop, jazz funk, lyrical, tap and gymnastics. In her junior year in high school, she became captain of her school’s Swing Dance Club which she led for her junior and senior years as well as co-captained a hip hop team started in her senior year. She now attends UC Riverside, where she is a first year dance major with a primary focus in modern. She is very excited to be a part of Born Dance Company and hopes that she can go very far in her dance career.

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