Jinan Kang, Yeonwha Kong, Minjung Kim, Sungwan Kim, Kitae Bae, Yeasul Shin, Jinyoung Shin, Sulki & Min, Woosup Sim, Min Oh, Sinsil Lee, Yanghee Lee, Youngwoo Lee, Taehun Lee, Kwangjun Jung, Joseph Fungsang, June Moon Kyung Hahn, Yunkyung Hur, Chosun Hong, 57studio,

“Sats is a term coined by Eugenio Barba of the Danish theater company Odin Company. It refers to the state of readiness to move in any direction. The term is sometimes translated as “pre-expression” in Korean. A more tangible illustration of Sats would include something like crouching before taking a leap, breathing prior to speaking, and flexing the fingers prior to pressing a key. It is a concept that should be studied in all types of performance arts that uses human movement, including dance, theater, and music performance.

Sats occurs with every bodily movement of the performance, and must therefore be considered with each activity. However, thespians therefore hope that the audience does not catch on to their Sats, which proves more natural, streamlined expression. In dance by Yang-hee Lee, a choreographer, Sats is often easier to hide, as it is naturally absorbed as a part of the dance movement. However in music, performers do not shy away from exposing Sats in its rawest form if it is necessary to do so in order to create the ideal sound. When playing in an ensemble without a conductor, performers may find Sats beneficial in ensuring the rhythmic integrity of the performance, and thereby even intentionally accentuate Sats. The more difficult a piece is to play in an ensemble, the clearer and more urgent the Sats will become. Perhaps the reason why one may prefer live performance to recordings is because they enjoy seeing the performers’ Sats while listening to the music."

“I imagined a pair of socks, rolled half-way inside-out while they were taken off. I also assume a movement that remains in place by coordinates despite its incessant motion. I thought of a garden tree, trimmed to a state that makes it difficult to ascertain which branches have and have not been cut. I pictured a status in which two disparate branches are entangled in such a complex, precise, yet neat fashion, making it almost meaningless to distinguish between the clearly contrasting branches: the in and out, before and after, and natural and artificial.”