KF뉴스레터-[Meeting Korean Culture Abroad] K-Culture at Home, Enjoyed Alone or Together “Ganggang sullae, let’s run; ganggang sullae, let’s dance.”

[Meeting Korean Culture Abroad] K-Culture at Home, Enjoyed Alone or Together “Ganggang sullae, let’s run; ganggang sullae, let’s dance.”

KF Features > [Meeting Korean Culture Abroad] K-Culture at Home, Enjoyed Alone or Together

[Meeting Korean Culture Abroad]K-Culture at Home, Enjoyed Alone or Together

“Ganggang sullae, let’s run; ganggang sullae, let’s dance.”

Scores of dancers capture viewers’ hearts as they present eye-catching changes on stage, second by second. At one moment, the performers gather around a point; in the next, they disperse. They run in a row, then clasp hands and dance in a circle, the climax of the folk dance. As the rhythm of the performance captured on film quickens, viewers post comments with increasing speed. The comments section is immediately filled with emoticons and reactions in English and Korean. Foreign viewers may not fully understand the enchanting Korean verses, but that doesn’t seem to keep them from relishing in the exhilarating pansori(musical storytelling) narratives and traditional performances.

The Korean Cultural Center in New York (KCCNY) staged its ganggang sullae performance as the first part of Connecting with Korea through the Traditional Arts, an online performance and talk program that streams productions live on YouTube from the National Gugak Center in Seoul. Ganggang sullae is a traditional Korean dance that originated in olden-day farming villages. Women would gather on Chuseok, the autumnal full-moon holiday, to form a circle and perform the dance, expressing their wishes for prosperity and a bountiful harvest. The dance has been designated by the Korean government as National Intangible Cultural Asset No. 8, and has been inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Dr. Hilary Finchum-Sung, executive director of the Association for Asian Studies and former professor in the Department of Korean Music at Seoul National University, explains the meaning and characteristics of the group dance in English.

The Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles (KCCLA) also prepared aganggang sullae performance for the seventh part of its K-Performance Series. The series began last April with the love song “Sarangga” from the pansori story Chunhyangga, and has met with a great response from the audience by featuring such traditional performances as salpuri, the shamanic dance; taepyeongmu, the dance wishing for peaceful times; andpungmulnori, percussion band folk music.

Korean Cultural Centers around the world are coming out of their brief hiatus triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of programs they’re offering online and via social media to introduce Korean culture are steadily increasing, giving the impression that they’re hosting even more activities these days than in the times before the social distancing measures incurred by COVID-19. Along with its K-Performance Series, the KCCLA is also running the K-Concert Series, featuring major numbers from the National Theater’s repertoire, and is conducting live tours of art exhibitions guided by a curator.

The K-Culture at Home program, designed to meet the different needs of local audiences in different regions, is supported by the Korean Cultural Centers in the Americas, including New York; Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Ottawa; Mexico City; and São Paulo. Through the program, Koreans and foreigners worldwide can enjoy diverse cultural content, including traditional arts, popular music, movies, Korean cuisine, and taekwondo.

The online programs hosted by the Korean Cultural Centers abroad enable viewers to enjoy communicating with one another, sharing information, knowledge, and feelings in real time. Though each viewer is far apart, they are commonly drawn towards Korean culture through their mutual interests and enjoyment.

Written by Kim Moonyoung