The World Ethnic Dance Research Center under the School of Dance Holds “The Mood of the Asian Ethnic Dance”

The invitation series of the world's intangible cultural asset, “The Mood of the Asian Ethnic Dance,” organized by the World Ethnic Dance Research Center under the School of Dance was held at the Seocho-dong campus on 14 November. Celebrating the 24^th anniversary, the series was composed of scrupulously selected works from South and North Korea, China, India, and Japan.

The “Court Dance of the Crane,” the first stage of the event, described the dignified movements of a pair of white and blue cranes. The stage of “Mang Seon Gate” depicted the cranes, which symbolize long life and immortality, dancing before the Mang Seon Gate, one of the palace gates in the Tang Dynasty in imperial China. It was followed by Gongmakmu, the dance movements in which two boy dancers spanned their swords like a whirlwind after swaying them for a while, and Cheoyongmu, the dance movements that eject the god of contagious diseases and misfortune. Both are the representative pieces of the Jeongjae Court Dance from the Joseon Dynasty.

The dances staged immediately after were Musa, a Lion Dance from China characterized by energetic and majestic movements, and Odissi, an Indian classical dance originating from the Odisha region in Eastern India distinguished by the beauty of its composition and elegant curvy movements. Besides, Tage, in which dancers stomp their feet and sing while dancing, and Shunnouten from Japan, which is alike the Korean Chunaeng-jeon (Spring Nightingale Dance), have significance to K-Arts as each of them was transferred to the School of Dance by Professor Deng Wongying from Beijing Dance Academy, China, and Professor Mita Noriyake from Japan, respectively. The event drew the curtains with the final stage of Jaeng-gang Dance, an exciting folk dance from North Korea in which the dancers made jaeng-gang sounds (“jaeng-gang” is an onomatopoeia for clanking metallic sound) with metal bracelets they were wearing.