Kim Joo-won (; born 8 May 1977) is a South Korean prima ballerina who has danced for 15 years with the Korean National Ballet (KNB). In 2012, she curtailed her formal membership of the troupe to branch out on her own.

Biography

Born in

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

, Kim began to study ballet when she was 12, completing her training at the Bolshoi Ballet School in 1998. The same year she joined the Korean National Ballet where she soon gained the distinction of

prima ballerina A ballet dancer is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet. They rely on years of extensive training and proper technique to become a part of a professional ballet company. Ballet dancers ...

. Kim has contributed significantly to Korean ballet taking leading roles in ''

Giselle ''Giselle'' ( , ), originally titled ''Giselle, ou les Wilis'' (; ''Giselle, or The Wilis''), is a romantic ballet () in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, it was first perfor ...

'', ''

Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoje ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, links=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failu ...

'', ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'' and Jean-Christophe Maillot's ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

''. Between 1998 and 2012, Kim performed approximately 100 times a year, practicing three or four different programs at a time. Semi-nude photos of her in ''Vogue'' and a photographer's exhibition in 2007 were considered controversial. Despite several offers from foreign troupes, she continued to dance with the company until 2012 when she branched out on her own, hoping to devote more of her time to musicals, pop art and fashion. After 15 years, she left the national ballet although she continues to dance with KNB as a guest principal dancer. Her first new assignment in June 2012 was to perform in ''Poise'', a contemporary ballet production, followed in 2013 by her own production of ''

Marguerite and Armand ''Marguerite and Armand'' is a ballet danced to an orchestral arrangement of Franz Liszt's B minor piano sonata. It was created in 1963 by the British choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton specifically for Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. The ba ...

''. In 2014, Kim will perform in “Two in Two”, a collaboration with her rival from the KNB, Ji-Young Kim, which incorporates

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...

, ballet and

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of Concert dance, dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly stron ...

. The two principal ballerinas had shared the role of princess Nakrang in the KNB show " Prince Hodong" in 2011 at the

Teatro di San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is a historic opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and ...

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, Italy. During 2016 Vivaldi’s '' Orlando finto pazzo'' production at the Korea National Opera, Kim did a cameo as princess Angelica. In that occasion she was asked by director Fabio Ceresa to dance a choreography in less than 1 square meter. Of her various awards, she has been the recipient of the Rookie award from the Korean Dance Association (2001), bronze medallist at the Moscow International Ballet Competition (2001), and Prima Ballerina Award of the Korean Dance Association (2002). At the 2006 Benois de la Danse, Kim took the prize for top female dancer.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Joo-won 1977 births Prima ballerinas South Korean ballerinas People from Busan Prix Benois de la Danse winners Korea National Ballet Living people