Soomi Speaks
An interview with NYC multidisciplinary performance artist Soomi Kim
"I always felt I had the soul of a dancer and also really wanted to act.
And music feeds my soul. I had to find a way where these things could
co-exist through the medium of performance in order to feel as though
I am truly expressing myself creatively and honestly."
Soomi Kim
There is need to know and want to know. Everything we need to know about
Soomi Kim and her art can be found on her official website and her MySpace page.
Here are questions about things we want to know.
Appropriately, the promotional material about you presents a powerful, larger-than-life image. But who is Soomi Kim the human being? Where and how did you grow up? What is your daily life like now?
I grew up in a small town in Oregon, called Lebanon (population 10,000) from ages 5-14. We then moved to Beaverton, a suburb of Portland where I attended High School. We were the only Korean family in Lebanon. I always believe big dreams are cultivated in small towns. Right now my daily life consists of living in the East village in Manhattan, riding my bike to Chelsea Piers to work as a gymnastics/dance coach and choreographer to young competitive gymnasts. I am a freelance actor/performing artist and I work with a few companies and artists as well as create, produce and develop my own work.
Were there any experiences or influences in your early life that pointed you in your current artistic direction?
I started competitive gymnastics at age 7 and I suppose I grew accustomed to the attention and the feeling of being “special.” When you grow up in a small town where you feel like and outsider, being able to have special skills that are unusual is empowering and the attention also becomes acceptance. I loved music and dance when I was young and I think I pretty much was hypnotized when I watched the movie “Fame” and saw people dancing in the streets. That’s when I dreamt of living in NYC and realized there was an exciting life beyond the borders of my town’s cow pastures.
“Multi-disciplinary performance artist” is not generally considered to be a traditional career path. How did you become aware of such a thing and what drew you to it?
Good question. It has been a blessing and a curse to love different artistic disciplines. As I mentioned already, I did gymnastics most of my life, but also played the alto saxophone from 5th grade through college and fell in love with jazz. I always felt I had the soul of a dancer and also really wanted to act. So when I began my acting career in NYC, I tried and experienced everything; stage, film, industrials, voiceovers, some commercial work etc. Although I gained some useful experience doing these types of “gigs” I never felt like I was fulfilling my potential- being really physical is part of who I am. Fulfilling a role through text using my voice and body as an instrument as an actor feeds my intellectual side as well as dramatic (we Koreans love to be dramatic in case you didn’t know). And music feeds my soul. I had to find a way where these things could co-exist through the medium of performance in order to feel as though I am truly expressing myself creatively and honestly (as Bruce Lee would say). That’s when I began combining disciplines to find my own voice as an artist. Besides, the work I now see that really excites and floors me is mostly hybrid work of some kind; I love the work that is produced at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): artists like Pina Bausch, William Forsythe, Robert Wilson, are visually and viscerally stunning. I also love well acted, written and directed straight ahead plays but I have been in a phase where I am more stimulated and excited by companies who create and choreograph original work that is outside the box. When I witness the imagination realized it is awe inspiring.
You have obviously received a lot of training in many areas of the arts. Of that training, what has been the most beneficial to you?
When I got cast for Fred Ho’s martial arts theater show “Voice of the Dragon” I had no concept of what Kung Fu was, had no awareness of any of it. I learned a bit about different styles of Kung Fu for my role, (Ng Mui, a hand to hand boxer/nun in the Shaolin Temple who ironically was the originator of Wing Chun, the style of martial arts that Bruce Lee is based in) a bit of tiger style (Hungar) mixed in with Wing Chun and Wu Shu. When we went on a 9 week tour across the U.S. of the show, I tried my best to learn from the really talented cast. There were many experts in their various styles of training and it was an opportunity to acquire martial arts to my vocabulary of movement. I now describe my movement style as a hybrid of martial arts, dance and gymnastics.
Do you create projects based on skills you already possess –or do you challenge yourself to master something new for the sake of your vision?
Like Bruce, I believe in utilizing what makes you (one) unique and try to really express that through the making of art. I use the skills and disciplines I have studied as well as my personal history as a human being. I will discover material or subject matter that inspires me. When this happens, it usually hits me without my realizing I have to create something out of this inspiration. Then I find that within that, there is always the task and exciting challenge of either learning something new or tackling/solving problems. For Lee/gendary I learned Wing Chun but this was a joy for me ; since I found it is just an extension of my love for movement. I am at the beginning stage for a new work that integrates dance/movement and poetry. This is pretty new territory for me but I wanted the challenge of discovering or uncovering my own process- I want to go through the uncomfortability and awkwardness of trying to choreograph to text.
The sheer physicality of your art is stunning. How do you get into/stay in shape for these things?
I never feel like I am in good enough shape! My job is coaching gymnastics and dance to competitive gymnasts, so that can be pretty physical; spotting. demonstrating, moving mats J But I also just go to the gym to workout, do yoga, condition, I dance, practice martial arts and usually train with a boxer named Gary Griffin who is a fantastic athlete and boxer, but also has a history with mixed martial arts. I wish I had more time to take
Dance classes. Lately I have been running at Tompkins Square Park in the East village and jump roping with the rats.
Have you been injured either in performance or in preparation for a show?
I have been punched a few times in the mouth when rehearsing choreographed fighting, I was whacked in the head with a staff during a live industrial performance (it was 7am!) I think I was still tired and I was supposed to duck, instead I jumped.. (yeah, ouch!!) One time I was performing in a taping for a variety show in Beirut and couldn’t keep enough distance between from my fight partner because the t.v. camera man was in the way and got kicked pretty solidly on the side of my head. It was the same guy who whacked my head with a staff! (you know who you are..) LOL both were accidents of course.
A bit about Lee/gendary (covered in detail elsewhere) – What inspired this work? Are you a big Bruce Lee fan?
I was not actually a big Bruce Lee fan. I watched the famous interview between Lee and Pierre Berton recorded in Hong Kong 1971 and I was totally mesmerized. I knew then I had to create a piece about him and it didn’t even dawn on me that he was a man and I was a woman. I just felt so connected to him that I had to play him. I pretty much created my dream role.