Korean Dance

Event program/brochure, for the Twentieth Anniversary of the Asian Cultural History Program and its Korean Heritage Project 1985-2005. Celebrated Tuesday, September 13, 2005 8:00 pm : The Music Center at Strathmore (North Bethesda, Maryland). Performance by the Chung-Ang Korean Traditional Art Group. Director: Dr. Bum-Hoon Park, President, Chung-Ang University (Seoul, Korea). Conductor: Prof. Jae-Young Kim. Producer: Prof. Ho-Bung Chung.

Part 1
1. Concert overtures “Jeycheon (Ritual to Heaven)”
Music by Chung-Ang Korean Traditional Musical Orchestra, Dance by Chung-Ang Dance Group
2. Gayageum Concerto. “Heung (joy)”
Composed by Kim Hui Ja (Cho), Performed by Ahn Ok Sun
Gayageum Concerto. “New Sanjo”
Composed by Park Bum Hoon, Performed by Park Hae-Ri-Na
3. Kyung-gi Province Folk Song—“Han Oh Baek Nyun”, “Jung Sun
Arirang”, “Kangwondo Arirang”, “Taepyung ga”, “Bae Nore”
Performed by Kim Young Im
4. New Folk Song “Gaya Song, Bae-Tti-Wora”
Sung by Kim Sung Nyeo
5. Kukak Pop “Wild Rose”, “At the Soup House”
Sung by Jang Sa Ik
Part 2
1. Chamber Musical “PoongRyu” (Korea syndrome), “Noe Young Na
Young” Chung-Ang Culture Club “One”
2. Ritual Song “Chun Do” By Chae Hyang-Soon, Sung by Kim Seong Nyoe
3. Musical Play ‘A love Song’ from “Chun-Hyang Jun”
Composed by Park Bum Hoon, Chun-Hyang is played by Cho Hae-Won, Lee Mong Ryong is played by Lee Kwang-Bok, Bang Ja is played by Choi Hyung-Sun, Hyang Dan is played by Min Eun-Kyung, Wual Mae is played by Chun Jumi
4. “Arirang for Peace” Composed by Park Bum Hoon, All in participation.

8-page event program booklet for the January 14, 2011 performance by Korea National University of Arts, at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian. This event,  hosted by Paul M. Taylor,  honored Korean American Day 2011, the 108th anniversary of the arrival of the first Korean immigrants to the United States on January 13, 1903. This day was recognized by Centennial Committees of Korean Immigration, and by U.S. Congressional resolutions and by many states, to honor the arrival in Hawaii of those pioneer Korean Americans, and to urge appreciation of the invaluable contributons that Korean Americans have made to the United States.

This 8-page event program accompanied the opening remarks and performance held on January 13, 2010, at Carmichael Auditorium, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Our annual celebration of "Korean American Day," hosted for the Smithsonian by Paul Michael Taylor, was in this year dedicated to the memory of Smithsonian museum specialist Chang-su Cho Houchins (1925-2009). This program booklet lists the event's sequence of musical performances by the Washington Korean Dance Company, and features welcoming messages by Dr. Paul Taylor, and by H.E. Han Duk-soo, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the USA.

From essay by Paul M. Taylor: "Today the Smithsonian - especially the National Museum of Natural History's Asian Cultural History Program, the Office of Policy and Analysis, the Smithsonian Libraries, and our colleagues here at the National Museum of American History- join the Korean Heritage Foundation, other community organizations, and all Americans, in celebrating Korean American Ray 2010, the 107th anniversary of the arrival of the first Korean immigrants to the United States on January 13, 1903. This day, January 13th, was recognized by Centennial Committees of Korean Immigration, and by U.S. Congressional resolutions and by many states, to honor the arrival in Hawaii of those pioneer Korean immigrants, and to urge appreciation of the invaluable contributions that Korean Americans have made to the United States."

When wealthy people died in ancient China, their tombs were filled with objects representing things the deceased were thought to need in the afterlife. Statues of servants, horses and chariots, writing tools, vessels for storing food, musical instruments, and figurines of dancers are among the common items found in these heavenly entourages. Dance was something not to be without even in death. Throughout the centuries, dance has continued to be important to people across China and neighboring Japan and Korea-the region we today call East Asia. 2 Performed at royal banquets, diplomatic functions, and national pageants, dance has been imbued with the power of governance and the symbolic majesty of the realm, whether that of an emperor, a colonial regime, or a nation-state. Dance has also been woven into the mundane rhythms of social life, appearing in harvest celebrations, healing rituals, courtship, after-school and corporate leisure activities, and public parks. Dance is further ubiquitous in many forms of commercial entertainment, from tourism and art festivals to television and video games. Simply put, dance is an indispensable part of the cultural life of East Asia, whether past or present, elite or popular, public or private.

In the age of globalization and cross-cultural communication the Republic of Korea attaches particular importance to promoting its culture globally at different levels, including traditional art. However, Korean traditional dance, unlike the traditional dance of other cultures (like Japanese, Indian, Irish etc.) is hardly known abroad and is mostly presented in the staged form, while actual learning is limited to local Korean culture centres and amateur performing groups within the Korean diaspora. This might be due to its specificity and assumed unobtainability for a foreign learner.
This paper explores the experience of learning and performing Korean traditional dance from the perspective of two female ‘foreigners’ (outsiders), an ethnical Korean raised in Russia and a South African. Each individual has different and overlapping reasons for practicing this dance form, notably interests in Korean culture, attempting a deeper understanding of ones heritage, professional interest and appreciation for its unique beauty. Between these two ‘foreigners’ one is an ethnic insider yet a national outsider, while the other is an ethnic and national outsider, however their foundation in dance training makes them insiders in the performance realm.
The continuum of insider/outsider is analysed here by discussing the following questions. When a foreigner chooses to learn and transmit traditional knowledge how universal is the dance language? What are the boundaries to this language when it comes to a dance form situated in a tradition that is unfamiliar? Is it possible to master Korean traditional dance by obtaining the physical technique and learning about the basic philosophical and cultural concepts behind it, or are there actually other essential elements of ‘Korean-ness’ (which Korean masters do often emphasise) that are only accessible to someone born and raised in Korea? How different are learning experiences of Korean dancers, who constitute the majority of the group, the ethnical Korean raised in Russia, and a dance professional from South Africa? The experience of being simultaneously an outsider and insider fluctuates throughout the class, rehearsal and performance aspects of learning, especially when verbal translation is required for the South African by the Russian Korean, who at once becomes an insider/outsider with her ability to understand Korean and English, while the South African is an outsider at these times, but concurrently being a professional choreographer and dance anthropologist represents a qualified practitioner and observer with a high level of theoretical and physical awareness.
This paper attempts to answer the questions posed above based on the experiences of the ethnic insider/outsiders and their teacher’s experience of teaching them. The perspective of non-Koreans and their personal interpretation of the meaning each of them finds in learning Korean traditional dance can be of interest for Korean researchers as it will provide insight into the potential of direct traditional dance experience (as opposed to mere showcasing through performances) as a means of communicating Korean culture across ethnical and national boarders, which may have been overlooked or underestimated by many Koreans.
The methodologies used in this study are participant observation, semi-structured surveys, and deep interviews.
Keywords: Korean traditional dance, ethnical insider and outsider, Korean-ness

This isn't an abstract, it's the start of the introduction:

In 2013 and early 2014, popular music from the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea), known as K-pop by its many fans, has increasingly incorporated obvious non-Koreans (white, black, and Latino/a) into music videos. These individuals are typically back-up dancers or characters in the story shown in the video. This diversity has emerged—in the genres that have been subsumed into the bricolage of K-pop, in the production teams, and increasingly in the performers themselves. K-pop, practical to the core, has so far subscribed to the cultural diversification of performers only within a narrow frame: performers should look Korean, but major groups now include performers who are Korean-American, Korean-Thai, Chinese, and even Chinese-American. Other performers have lived abroad, and may be better able to appeal to foreign audiences.
Throughout this paper I use the term ‘foreign dancing body.’ By ‘foreign,’ I mean ‘visually identifiable as not being of primarily East Asian descent.’ Further, I use the term ‘dancing’ although some of these individuals are not actually dancing, but acting a part or even singing.  This choice is a deliberate one. Even when these performers are not dancing per se, in the sense of specific dance movements, they are still dancing in two senses: they are moving at the choreographed direction of another person, and their movements serve the overwhelming focus of promoting the song and artist(s) that headline the video.
What is significant about the presence of these foreign dancing bodies in K-pop is that they are intensely interwoven with power dynamics. Just as ‘dance is an area where, as embodied beings, we negotiate the social and cultural discourses through which gender and sexuality are maintained’ (Burt 2007: 16), K-pop music videos are an area where the dance of racialized others demonstrates Korean social and cultural ideologies of race, gender, and sexuality. [paragraph continues...]