Julia (Hoon-Sook) Moon's Universal Ballet Unites East and West in World Tour

A dynamic array of Universal Ballet dancers performing in the ballet Shim Chung - The Blindman’s Daughter.

The world-renowned Universal Ballet Company, founded and currently led by a member of the True Family, Julia (Hoon-Sook) Moon, will be performing an original production, Shim Chung – The Blindman’s Daughter, in San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House on July 22 and 24, 2011 and at The Center in Vancouver for the Performing Arts on July 29-30, 2011. Unification Church members have been offered a 50 percent discount on ticket purchases (see contact information at end of story). These performances, staged by producer Kevin Park of Snowy World Entertainment, are part of the company’s highly-anticipated world tour, which is scheduled to grace the stages of more than 40 cities in the course of three years to culminate in Universal Ballet’s 30th Anniversary in 2014.

Act II of the ballet Shim Chung, featuring the main character Shim Chung with the Sea Dragon King.

Two hours and fifteen minutes in length, Shim Chung is a fully staged classical ballet equipped with an exquisite display of costumes and featuring the talent of more than 70 dancers gathered from all over the world. The first production of Shim Chung took place in 1986 by an international team of artists and was quickly recognized as a groundbreaking creation, having synthesized the grace and harmony of Asian

thought and culture with the strength and beauty of western classical ballet. This production is based on a Korean legend portraying the traditional eastern theme of Hyodo, or filial devotion, and tells the story of a young maiden who embarks upon a dangerous journey in order to protect her blind father.

Dance critic Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times wrote of Universal Ballet’s New York performance: “the storytelling and pageantry of Shim Chung were impressive, and clearly touched the hearts of audience members in a time when the essential humanity of dance seems largely lost.” Lewis Segal of the Los Angeles Times praised the dancers as embodying “the identical concept of classical style, the identical sense of placement, line, technical finesse. Whatever their individual talent or training, they speak the same movement language – an amazing accomplishment.” Critic Zsuzsa Kaan, from Art of Dance, Budapest, lauded the production as a “miracle in the history of dance,” and Universal Ballet itself has been proclaimed “a major player in world dance” by critic Clive Barnes from Dance Magazine.

Julia (Hoon-Sook) Moon, founding member and General Director of Universal Ballet.

Julia Moon, a founding member of Universal Ballet in 1984 and General Director of the company since 1996, has served as the Chairwoman of the Universal Ballet Academy in Seoul, Korea and the Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington, DC, as well as advisor to the Sun Hwa Arts School ballet division in Seoul. She is known to be a leading force in the development of classical ballet in Korea and has worked with Oleg Vinogradov since 1992 to ensure that Universal Ballet inherits the Russian ballet tradition, including an intertwining of eastern and western techniques. Having performed as Universal Ballet’s leading ballerina during the 1980’s and 90’s, Julia Moon has a firm belief that the more people come to know ballet, the better the world will be, as things of beauty bring goodness to the world. Guided by our True Parents’ well-known message of achieving universal harmony through the arts, she therefore strives to highlight the company’s slogan of “Heavenly Art Creating a World of Beauty.” She has danced leading roles in much of Universal Ballet’s repertory, including the leads in Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, La Bayadere, La Sylphide, Coppelia, and The Nutcracker, as well as in Shim Chung, when the ballet was first opened in 1986.

Regarding this year’s tour, Ms. Moon says, “San Francisco and Vancouver are some of the most beautiful cities that people from all around like to visit. When Universal Ballet performed Sleeping Beauty in Vancouver 2000 and Romeo and Juliet in San Francisco in 2004, we received warm, enthusiastic applause and standing ovations. We are very pleased that when we return to these two beautiful cities this year, we will have the opportunity to share our own unique Korean creation, Shim Chung, with the people of San Francisco and Vancouver.”

For more information about obtaining discounted tickets for the San Francisco and the Vancouver shows, please call Mr. Terry Myung, event producer, 818-957-4706, or 213-265-6713, or visit Snowy World Entertainment, 3250 Fairesta ST #D8, La Crescenta, CA 91214.