Sun Hee Kim

Dean, School of Dance, Korea National University of Arts. As a dance educator, scholar, artistic director, and choreographer, Kim Sun-Hee has established herself as one of the prominent figures in the history of Korean ballet. Starting Ballet at 9 years old, graduated Department of Dance at the Ewha Womans University in Korea and she moved to New York to study at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York University, working with numerous dance companies as a dancer and choreographer. After earning her MFA degree Kim went back to Korea, where she worked as a dancer and teacher at various institutions until the early 1990s. Then she moved to Saint Petersburg in Russia to further train herself in the classical ballet, where she completed the renowned Vaganova Teacher Training Program. Being the first Korean ever to study classical ballet in Russia, and given the fact that there was not even an official diplomatic relations between the two countries during that time, her study abroad have played a major role in the development of Korean ballet.

Kim is currently a full-time faculty member in the School of Dance at the Korean National University of Arts (KNUA). She has dedicated herself in the training of gifted students as well as choreographing her original dance pieces. Her students have won awards from numerous ballet competitions around the world such as Prix de Lausanne, IBC Varna, VKIBC, Russia Vaganova, Jackson International Competition, Youth America Grand Prix, TANZOLIMP, Perm Russia Ballet Competition and Sicily Barocca. Kim’s students have performed for and worked with the Korean National Ballet, Universal Ballet, and other major ballet companies worldwide.

Kim is proud to have contributed in giving to her country the tradition of classical ballet which can trace its roots all the way to the Renaissance in Western Europe. Having played her part in the development and establishment of classical ballet in Korea, Kim now believes that her responsibility lies in promoting the excellence of her country’s young dancers worldwide.