LG Arts Center's 2026 lineup brings together global productions, homegrown theater

"A Midsummer Night’s Dream" (Ballet Dortmund)
"A Midsummer Night’s Dream" (Ballet Dortmund)

LG Arts Center has announced the lineup for its 2026 curated season, CoMPAS 26. Short for Contemporary Music & Performing Arts Season, CoMPAS is the arts center’s flagship program, guided by the motto of “introducing, in real time, the high-quality works that contemporary audiences should not miss.”

Marking the program’s 27th year, the season will present nine works spanning dance, ballet, theater, jazz and classical music.

The most anticipated entries in the lineup are large-scale international theater and dance productions that unfold in distinctive worlds where reality and fantasy blur.

Acclaimed choreographer Crystal Pite will bring her company Kidd Pivot to Seoul with "Assembly Hall" from June 5 to 7. The work, which won the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production in 2025, unfolds at a community hall meeting of medieval re-enactors, where a faltering present-day reality gradually gives way to a world in which history, ritual and imagined pasts collide.

Alexander Ekman, the choreographer behind "Hammer," returns with one of his signature works, "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," to be performed from June 12 to 14. Inspired by Sweden’s white nights, when summer days seem endless, the production transforms a midsummer festival into a large-scale contemporary ballet in which reality and illusion overlap.

In November, "ROHTKO" by the Polish director Lukasz Twarkowski will take the stage. Running close to four hours, the production draws on the infamous Rothko forgery case, in which a multimillion-dollar painting was later revealed to be the work of a Queens-based mathematics teacher. Mixing theater and live cinema, the work probes questions of authenticity, emotion and value in art.

"Assembly Hall" (Kidd Pivot)
"Assembly Hall" (Kidd Pivot)

Three productions created by LG Arts Center will also be unveiled. Its signature hit "The Cherry Orchard," which toured Hong Kong and Singapore this year, is set to travel to Australia and New York next year. "Uncle Vanya," directed by Son Sang-kyu, will be performed from May 7 to 31. On Oct. 23 and 24, the pansori singer Lee Ja-ram will restage her work "Snow, Snow, Snow." Yangson Project, which launched its Ibsen Trilogy this year with "Ghosts," will return from Nov. 20 to 29 with the second installment, "An Enemy of the People (working title)."

The music program brings internationally celebrated artists to the stage. Wynton Marsalis will appear with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on March 25 and 26. On April 26, the French piano duo Katia and Marielle Labeque will perform Philip Glass’ Cocteau Trilogy. In October, the immersive production "Piano Piano," which combines live piano music with light and juggling, will be presented on the U+ Stage.

Package tickets for CoMPAS 26 will go on sale on Jan. 20 at 2 p.m., with individual tickets available starting Jan. 27 at 2 p.m.

"Snow, Snow, Snow" (LG Arts Center)
"Snow, Snow, Snow" (LG Arts Center)

hwangdh@heraldcorp.com