Kang Miseon Wins Benois de la Danse Academy Award in Dance World... Fifth Recipient in Korea

Joint Award to Zhong Chuyunting and Female Dancer

Universal Ballet's principal dancer Kang Mi-sun received the Best Female Dancer Award at the '2023 Benois de la Danse,' known as the Academy Awards of the dance world.

Miseon Kang, principal dancer of Universal Ballet.
[Photo by Universal Ballet]

On the 20th (local time), the Benois de la Danse organizing committee announced at the award ceremony held at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia, that Kang Mi-sun and Zhu Yunting of the National Ballet of China were jointly selected as the Best Female Dancers.

Kang Mi-sun earned the honor for her role as the widow in the work 'Mirinaegil,' which was presented at the National Theater in March this year.

Celebrating its 31st anniversary this year, the 'Benois de la Danse' is a globally prestigious award known as the 'Academy Awards of the dance world.' Established in 1991 by the Russian headquarters of the International Dance Council (currently the International Dance Federation) to honor ballet reformer Jean-Georges Noverre (1727?1810), it annually judges works from world-class ballet companies and selects the best male and female dancers, choreographers, composers, and others.

Kang Mi-sun became the fifth Korean to receive this award. Previous recipients include ballerinas Kang Sue-jin (1999), Kim Joo-won (2006), ballet dancer Kim Ki-min (2016), and ballerina Park Se-eun (2018).

Kang Mi-sun is a representative ballerina who has set a new record as the longest-serving dancer in Korean ballet history (21 years with Universal Ballet). After graduating from Sunhwa Arts Middle and High School, she attended the Kirov Academy in Washington, USA, and joined Universal Ballet in 2002.

After joining, she progressed from corps de ballet dancer to demi-soloist (2005?2006), soloist (2006?2010), senior soloist (2010?2012), and was promoted to principal dancer in 2012. During this time, she mastered the entire repertoire of the ballet company, including full-length ballets such as 'Swan Lake,' 'Giselle,' 'Don Quixote,' 'La Bayad?re,' 'Onegin,' 'Romeo and Juliet,' 'Simcheong,' and 'Chunhyang,' as well as modern works like Ji?? Kyli?n's 'Petite Mort,' Nacho Duato's 'Multiplicity,' 'Duende,' and Raymond Leppard's 'White Sleep.'

At the gala concert held alongside the award ceremony, Kang Mi-sun, together with Universal Ballet principal dancer Lee Dong-tak, performed the reunion pas de deux from 'Mirinaegil' and 'Chunhyang,' receiving enthusiastic applause.