When the Club Becomes the Body

Ambiguous Kim on techno, flesh and future identities - 

Born in the pulsating darkness of the club and projected onto international stages, Ambiguous Kim’s work redefines the body as an unstable territory: neither gender nor machine, neither tradition nor future. Choreographer and founder of AMDACO, Kim transforms techno into a radical physical language, where movement becomes a political, aesthetic, and sensory act.Between Seoul’s nightlife, dance communities, and performances like Body Concert, his practice crosses dance, fashion, and technology, questioning what it truly means to be present in an era dominated by avatars, AI, and digital bodies. For VERTIGINI STUDIO, we spoke with him about fluid identities, real sweat, and the freedom of gesture.

G.G. : Your work is born in the club but often ends up on stages and in museums. What happens to the body when techno stops being just music and becomes a choreographic language? 

A.K. : It becomes the heart.Stripped of meaning, stripped of intention, the body turns into a heart that beats simply to stay alive. In that moment, movement no longer signifies—it pulses.I feel as if I am returning to the raw core of existence.

G.G. : Your movement is often described as “ambiguous”: neither masculine nor feminine, neither traditional nor futuristic. How important is it for you to use dance as a space for destabilizing identities? 

A.K. : For me, dancing is no different from waking up each morning. It is not a means to create, nor a way to express something specific. I simply use my body every day—letting it sweat, letting it move—and in that repetition, I discover what quietly comes into being.

G.G. : Seoul is a hyper-fast, layered, almost algorithmic city. How does the city’s energy and Korean nightlife influence the rhythm, physicality, and aesthetic of your choreography? 

A.K. : That’s an interesting question. Korea is one of the most competitive places I know.Stepping outside that constant competition was not easy—people here even compete at having fun. (I’m joking… but not entirely.)

Seoul moves at an extreme speed. Transportation, fashion, trends, music..everything accelerates. Sometimes it feels like the city changes faster than my dancing ever could.

So I dance in the opposite direction. To slow it down.

G.G. : AMDACO is not just a company, but also a school and a community. What kind of dancers are you trying to train today — and what do you think dance must “unlearn” to stay radical? 

A.K. : If there is something we must let go of, it is the impulse to feel from the outside in.For me, dance always moves from the inside outward.When movement begins there, it cannot help but become singular—each body finding its own dance. Those are the dancers I want to nurture. And I hope there will be more of them. 

G.G.: In Body Concert, the body functions like a sound system, almost like a living machine. Are you interested in the idea of the dancer as an interface between flesh, sound, and technology? 

A.K. : Body Concert is an attempt to translate music through Ambiguous’s own language.But there is an irony at its core, music can never be fully embodied.That impossibility is precisely why we keep practicing again and again for over fifteen years. It is not a dance oriented toward completion, but toward direction. A practice rather than a result. Through Body Concert, what we continue to train is the gap between speeds, the speed of sound and the speed of light. And the gestures that try, endlessly, to connect them.

G.G. : Fashion and dance share similar obsessions: silhouette, repetition, gesture. How do you imagine a deeper dialogue between choreography, fashion design, and contemporary visual cultures? 

A.K. : Skin is the ultimate fabric. The body is the ultimate design. Neither dance nor fashion exists to follow a pattern. At their core, both return to their most essential functions, communication and survival. And perhaps that is where they are most beautiful. 

G.G. : We live in an era dominated by AI, avatars, and digital bodies. What role does the physical body — sweaty, imperfect, real — play for you in an increasingly virtual future? 

A.K. : I believe the human body is regressing. As technology accelerates, the body slowly withdraws.

Our dance moves toward the extreme. There is no middle ground, only evolution or degeneration. While technology continues to advance, the physical body risks becoming passive, reduced. One of the ultimate aims of Ambiguous Dance is to insist on a body and a dance that chooses evolution as its direction. 

G.G. : If you were to create a performance for a generation raised on raves, social media, and post-human aesthetics, what message would you want to leave about the body and freedom? 

A.K. : There is a work I want to make someday, about the body, and about freedom.The Rite of Spring. All the dancers would move exclusively through Michael Jackson’s choreography.The music would be Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. And the dancer who is sacrificed at the end would be the one who comes closest to carrying Michael Jackson’s soul in their movement. Michael Jackson has shaped my body since childhood, and that influence is still unfolding. To encounter his dance only through screens feels deeply sad to me. I want his movement to live again in real bodies. And to pass that living dance on to the next generation. 

In a world accelerating toward the virtual, Ambiguous Kim brings everything back to zero: the body. A body that vibrates like a sound system, that resists categories, moving between clubs, schools, and performances as a space of possibility.His dance does not seek definitive answers but creates fractures — moments of ambiguity where identity, technology, and desire collapse into a single gesture. Perhaps it is precisely there, between the beat of techno and the labored breath of flesh, that the future of movement takes shape.

By Greta Gerardi