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FESTIVAL DANCERSNorthern California Korean Dance AssociationDance Origin: Korea The Northern California
Korean Dance Association, created in 2004 by Artistic Director Hearan Chung,
fosters and develops Korean culture and dance as cultural exchange between Korea and other
nationalities, local Korean immigrants, and Korean Americans. Hearan Chung has mastered various fields of Korean
dance including court, folk, and creative dance, beginning her training at age
five. She earned an MA from Ewha
Women's University, taught for over
20 years in Korean universities, and immigrated to the United States in 2000. She has
choreographed over forty-six works of dance, published four theses, and has performed at the Festival,
the Asian Art Museum,
and the Women on the Way festival at
Dance Mission Theater. She was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award in
2005 and 2007, and was featured in the PBS 2006 SPARK Program. In
2007, Chung received a grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and
the Alliance
for California Traditional Arts. 2009 PERFORMANCETitle: Gum Mu Jung Il Moon is a Korean instrumentalist and composer
who began playing the Piri, a Korean flute, at age thirteen. He earned a B.A.
and M.A. in Korean traditional music at Hanyang University, Korea and was
principle Piri player for the Korean Broadcasting Station Korean Traditional
Music Orchestra. His numerous music compositions include several for Korean
traditional dances. He is currently Korean traditional music professor at
Woosuk University, Korea and conductor of Junra Bookdo Youth Orchestra. 2008 PERFORMANCE
In Korea's ancient Shinra period (57 BCE to 668 CE), a seven-year-old boy named Hwang Chang Yang became famous for his skill with Korean sword dance, gum mu. He was invited to perform gum mu for Shinra's enemy, the King of Baekjae, and while dancing, Yang stabbed the King to death. Unable to escape, Yang was also killed, and Shinra’s people mourned. They crafted masks to look like the young hero, and danced the gum mu in his honor, and the dance became a traditional favorite in royal courts. Originally, men danced with swords and masks, and when women began dancing it in the Chosun period (1392 to 1910), they dropped the masks. Over the centuries, the once dangerous dance evolved a slow and ritualized beauty. Today, its slow movements offer beauty, grace, and peace. The dancers are accompanied by guest instrumentalists from Korea—wHOOL: Yoon-Sang Choi, Hyun-June Juen, Hyun-Soo Kim, Si-Youl Kim, Yea-Rim Lee, Dong-Il Park, They play Korean wind instruments, piri, daegeum, and haegeum, and percussion on the jang gu. A percussion instrument called bak signals the changes of rhythm and speed, and the clash of opening and closing swords sounds a slow, insistent, and elegant marking of time. 2007 PERFORMANCE
2005 PERFORMANCE
The specific form of Seungmu performed by Hearan Chung in the 2005 Festival, is a type known as a "creation dance." In Korea, death is not viewed as an end, but part of a revolving cycle of death and rebirth. With its ethereal movements, mesmerizing drumbeats and haunting chants, this dance carries the message of a soul's transformation to a new form of life. The symbolism revolves around a bird preparing to fly away. It is a metaphor for a dead human soul healing itself from the resentments of worldly life, thus freeing it to move to the next life. The dancer wears the traditional jangsam robe with long ribbon-like sleeves, along with a white triangular hat and long red cloth draped over one shoulder. Each part of the attire represents aspects of a bird. The movement of the sleeves is symbolic of the wings and signifies the human desire to be united with the heavenly spirits. With precise foot steps and a variety of sleeve-tossing techniques, the dance culminates to the sounds of a huge drum. |
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