#45. A Ballet Cooperative in Korea
The Ballet STP (Sharing Talent Program) Cooperative is the first cooperative in the culture and art world established in 2012 by five private ballet organizations; Universal Ballet, Seoul Ballet Theater, Lee WonKuk Ballet, SEO Ballet, and Wise Ballet.
Since 2014 it has officially launched under the name of Ballet STP Cooperative to help the ballet industry develop together and to help its newcomers. Since then another organization called, Kim Ok-Ryun Ballet has joined and now the six private ballet organizations are working together.
It is very unusual to see this kind of collaboration here as well as overseas, where top private organizations gather together regularly to make joint performances.
The Ballet STP Cooperative is composed of the heads from each organization. Generally, ‘cooperatives’ understand that those who are in similar conditions gather together as members and cooperate with each other. However, each of the 6 groups of the Ballet STP Cooperative has a big difference in size and sales as well as in foundation history, a number of members, creative repertoire and ballet capability. Nonetheless, they are working together smoothly without any major disagreements.
They have been contributing to share their talents and experiences in ballet. Their know-how has been shared with stable art activities of dancers and the development of the ballet industry.
The main business of the Ballet STP Cooperative is for joint performances. They provide representative performances of each ballet organization in March and May in the Ballet Beautiful Sharing Series. Each ballet has its own colors and styles and people can enjoy a variety of ballet styles ranging from classical to modern ballet through these joint performances.
It is in a format that explains the works of other groups rather than introducing their own performances. Each leader of the organization makes it easier for audiences to understand ballet-related terms, stories, and etc. This is one of the reasons that feedback from the audiences have been positive.
A Repertoire Exchange Program also has operated in the form of helping small ballet companies. If small ballet companies have a lack of dancers, other dancers from big ballet companies may fill the vacancy through the exchange program. Also, they share good repertoires together.
Gil-Yong Kim, one of the cooperative’s directors, said that “You think ballet is graceful and aristocratic, but it is miraculous to run a private ballet company for more than 10 years. It is difficult to continue to exist and be maintained. I frankly do not know clearly how I can help newcomers who try to make their own ballet organizations. We will help the ballet industry grow together and lead the newcomers through the Ballet STP Cooperative.”
