The Universal Ballet was founded in Seoul, South Korea in 1984. One of only four professional ballet companies in South Korea, the company performs a repertory that includes many full length classical story ballets, together with shorter contemporary works and original full-length Korean ballets created especially for the company. The company is supported by followers of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, with Moon's daughter-in-law Julia H. Moon, who was the company's prima ballerina until 2001, now serving as General Director.
According to the New York Times the Universal Ballet is considered to be one of Asia's leading ballet companies. Robert Black wrote in The Daily Telegraph:
- The company has 73 dancers, two-thirds Korean, many Russian, all dancing with that long-legged clarity of the Kirov but with a pearly, Asian softness of attack. Julia Moon herself is a lovely ballerina, a modest and gracious woman of 37, who seems overawed by her dual responsibilities as ballerina-in-chief and general director.
Famous quotes containing the words universal and/or ballet:
“Not because Socrates has said it, but because it is really in my nature, and perhaps a little more than it should be, I look upon all humans as my fellow-citizens, and would embrace a Pole as I would a Frenchman, subordinating this national tie to the common and universal one.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Anyone who has a child today should train him to be either a physicist or a ballet dancer. Then he’ll escape.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)