Hee Seo

Shakespeare pretty much summed up the American Ballet Theatre corps member Hee Seo with, “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?” When Seo dances, she is something like the sun, spreading her calm radiance over the stage. On Thursday 9, she will make her New York debut in Romeo and Juliet opposite Cory Stearns. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Seo came to ballet relatively late, but briskly gained attention; after training at the Universal Ballet Academy in Washington, D.C., she won the Prix de Lausanne Award and the Grand Prix at the Youth American Grand Prix. She joined the ABT Studio Company in 2004 and the main company two years later. With her wry humor, which gives her innate elegance an edge, Seo, 23, spoke about her blossoming career.

How did you start ballet? How old were you?
I was 12 when I started dancing. I used to swim. Then I quit because I sucked. But my mom figured I needed to do some kind of exercise because I was small and skinny, so she put me into a dance class.

How long did you swim?
For awhile. I have two brothers and all of us swam and played piano. It was just a family thing. It was just something that my mom thought we should know how to do.

Did you train in ballet from the beginning?
It was in a small studio, a community-service kind of class. Basically, you were just skipping around and holding hands and the teacher would say, “Do the butterfly.” Then you would do the butterfly.

Did you like dancing?
I don’t know. I think back that maybe I did like to dance. When I was accepted to the arts school in Seoul [Sun-hwa Arts Middle School], I said that I wanted to go. But at that time, compared to now, I didn’t know what ballet was and I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I do now. In a way, I’m glad that I didn’t start that early. And I’m glad that my mom is not a ballet mom. She’s totally away from it. That did help me. I saw a lot of my friends get stressed from their moms. I think I am a very independent person. I wouldn’t be where I am if my mom was like that.

Because you would have rebelled and done the opposite?
Yeah. [Smiles]

How did you get into the arts school?
I don’t know if Americans have this too, but when I was in elementary school students would pick one person to become the school president. I was the school president. The dean of the school got a letter from this arts school that they were holding a competition at a really famous arts school in Seoul and it said, “I you have somebody who can come to our competition, please do.” They had just started the competition so they didn’t have very many people. The dean knew that I was dancing—doing the butterfly—but he thought it was ballet and he asked me if I wanted to do it. I said, “Sure why not?” I am a very open person. I will do whatever comes. So I did it and it’s so funny. I got a prize from the competition and I was totally not prepared. I borrowed shoes from one of the girls. I didn’t own any of the ballet clothes or anything. I would just wear shorts and a T-shirt for ballet class. After I got a prize from the competition, the school asked me to attend on scholarship. It was like, “Whaaat?” I had only started dancing six months before, and in Korea, the competition is very hard.

What was the award?
It’s just a competition for the school; if you get the award they just invite you to attend the school on a scholarship. You can accept it or you don’t have to go, but most people die for it. And they train years and years to get to that point. It’s funny. I never thought that I was the best in my class, even though I was the one who got to do all these good parts out of all the students, but I knew that I wasn’t good enough. I can see people and I know they are better than me. But then because I was doing so many things I knew that I had something special that other people don’t have. But I didn’t know what it was. I still don’t know what it is. I know I’m not the best one, but I get to do a lot more things than other people.

When you first started dancing at ABT, my eye always went directly to you.
Maybe because I am Asian?

No, no. It’s something else. You’re a very peaceful dancer. You’re not desperate.
[Pauses] I think it’s part of my personality. I think I try to be a good person—not because I want to be a good person, but I love dancing and when you dance your personality really shows; so if you’re a bad person or if you’re weird in some way, it’s such a pure art form that it comes out somehow. I think it’s so true.

It is true—even in those shows like Dancing with the Stars. Don’t their personalities come out?
[Laughs] Yeah, yeah. It’s weird right?

So you were on scholarship—for how long?
I was there for just a year. And then I moved to Washington, D.C., to go to the Universal Ballet Academy. I think everything just happened. The door was kind of open—I wasn’t going to do this competition and I wasn’t expected to get a prize and I wasn’t expected to be accepted into arts school. Everything just kind of happened and I remember the day I auditioned. It was late December and the artistic director of the school came to Korea for a business trip. My teacher asked me if I wanted to take an audition. As I told you, I am an open person, so I was like, “Okay!” and it was that day. A couple of other girls auditioned too, and then I was accepted and I went to Washington, D.C., in January. That happened in two, three weeks. It’s crazy, right?

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