Meet So Jung
Hometown: Seoul, South Korea
So Jung Shin began her dance studies at age eight. She received training at Sunhwa Arts High School and is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in ballet from Sejong University on full scholarship. She has competed in numerous competitions, including 1st place for junior women at the 2016 Helsinki International Ballet Competition, senior finalist at the Perm Ekaterina Maximova Ballet Competition Arabesque, and silver medalist in the 2016 Korea International Ballet Competition. So Jung also participated in the 2014 East Asia Youth Ballet Week, where she was awarded a gold medal at the Dong-A Dance Competition and in 2013, she was awarded the grand prize at the Sejong Dance Competition. In 2016, she was awarded Senior first place at the Seoul International Ballet competition.
So Jung joined Philadelphia Ballet for our 2016/2017 Season as a member of the Corps de Ballet, and was promoted to Demi Soloist for our 2019/2020 Season. She was promoted to Soloist prior to the company’s 2021 performances of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®. She has danced the principal roles of Cinderella in Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella, Nikiya in La Bayadère and the Sugarplum Fairy in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®. In recent seasons she has danced principal roles in George Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco, Christopher Wheeldon’s Polyphonia, and Juliano Nunes’ Encounters. She also danced in the world premieres of Matthew Neenan’s Somnolence, Andrea Miller’s Evenings, Yin Yue’s A Trace of Inevitability, and Juliano Nunes’s Connections.
