Yoon Hye Jin laces up pointe shoes again after 14 years

Yoon Hye Jin is stepping back onto the stage in pointe shoes for the first time in 14 years. On August 8, she will return before audiences as a ballerina through Choi Tae-ji's ballet open rehearsal, "Releve: Again, to the Stage," at Small Theater Dream inside Gangdong Arts Center in Seoul.

On June 9, Yoon posted a video on her YouTube channel led by the sentence, "A dream has never retired." Rather than presenting the moment as a glamorous comeback announcement, the video followed a day inside the rehearsal studio: Yoon preparing her pointe shoes, rebuilding her body, and spending long hours for a brief scene that will be seen onstage.

The open rehearsal at Gangdong Arts Center is scheduled for two performances on August 8, one at 3 p.m. and another at 6 p.m. The stage will bring together artistic director Choi Tae-ji and Yoon Hye Jin, who will use both dance and conversation to recount Yoon's years as a dancer and the process that has led her back to performance. Tickets for all seats were listed at 40,000 won.

The open rehearsal format also signals the character of this stage. It is not simply a finished performance presented at its most polished point. It is designed as a space where the preparation itself, the time spent rebuilding the body, and the path a dancer has traveled can be shared with the audience. It is also a stage that does not hide the pressure of taking a first step after a long wait.

For this performance, Yoon is expected to present a scene from Jean-Christophe Maillot's "Dov'e la Luna." The choice is closely connected to her own career, which includes time as a principal dancer with the Korean National Ballet and work with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. Maillot is widely known as a choreographer representing Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.

Ahn Jae-yong, a principal dancer with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, was mentioned as Yoon's partner onstage. In that sense, Yoon is preparing her return in a way that links the stages she once belonged to with the time she is living through now.

Yoon did not hide her hesitation as she prepared for the comeback. She said she had considered declining because she thought it would be a performance where she would dance lightly. She also said she had wondered, "There are so many beautiful dancers currently active, so why would I need to do this?" In the scene where she put pointe shoes on again, she even said, "I wonder if I was wrong to say I would do it."

Still, Yoon also said, "For a brief moment, I have to pour three months of myself into it. So that I will not regret those five minutes, I have to do this every day." Behind the few minutes the audience sees are repetitions that restore strength, flexibility, breath, and the feeling at the tips of the feet. The 14-year gap is a stretch of time she has to pass through physically, day after day.

To the wider public, Yoon Hye Jin is also familiar as the wife of actor Uhm Tae Woong, as a variety-show personality, and as a YouTube creator. But her starting point was the stage, including her career as a principal dancer at the Korean National Ballet and her time with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. On August 8 at Gangdong Arts Center, Yoon will bring that history back before audiences through a scene from "Dov'e la Luna."