Korea, Nigeria celebrate relations in dance and movement

Dance, acrobatics and theatrics are usually elements of culture and tourism. But last Wednesday, in marking Nigeria’s golden jubilee and thirty years of bilateral relations with Korea, Nigerians along with the diplomatic community and other nationals were treated to a night of the Korea-Nigeria Joint Cultural Performance. Going by the Korean proverb, “Seeing once is […]

Dance, acrobatics and theatrics are usually elements of culture and tourism. But last Wednesday, in marking Nigeria’s golden jubilee and thirty years of bilateral relations with Korea, Nigerians along with the diplomatic community and other nationals were treated to a night of the Korea-Nigeria Joint Cultural Performance.
Going by the Korean proverb, “Seeing once is better than hearing 100 times,” quoted by her Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Yu In-chon, guests experienced a criss-crossing of cultures in dance and movements.
Folk Percussion Ensemble in Samullori. Samullori is a performance of four instruments from which the root word samu originates. It includes a small gong kkwaenggwari, an hourglass drum janggu, a barel drum buk, and a large gong jing. Samullori is a stage version of the large-scaled, outdoor entertainment form called pungmul which made its first appearance in 1978.
While pungmul focuses on the activity aspect of a large scale performance, samullori is a refined in-door music which focuses on the brilliant skills of individual performers employing a variety of rhythmic patterns arranged according to the principles of tension and relaxation and gi-gyeong-gyeol-hae (begin-proceed-climax-closure) structure.
Hallyangmu refers to a young with an ability to appreciate the beauty of art. It is a folk dance requiring a high level of artistic skill which expresses the pleasures of life spent in enjoying oneself with grace meot, pursuing the beauty of nature and art.
The dancer clad in typical yangban’s outdoor attire topped with a gentle man’s hat dances while swinging his long sleeves, either barehanded or holding a fan in his hand. It could be done solo or as a group. This dance is one of the few existing examples of male dance in Korean folk tradition. It is a romantic depiction of the life of hallyang.
A head full of ribbons is the first sight as performers of Pangut and Korean traditional folk theatrics. Pangut a total form of art and play carried out by geollip-pae specifically performing to raise money and rice for public. It is also performed by Namsadang-pae the wandering troupe known for its spectacular dance, pungmul and acrobatics.
Split in two sessions, the first involves play and formation of various group disposition, as the second half is mostly devoted to displaying individual feats such as sangshoe nori, seoljanggu nori and sogo nori.
In nimble and seemingly easy steps is the salpuri dance aimed at exorcism. Originating from shaman’s exorcism rituals of the Jeolla Province in Korea, it was modified by professional artisans in the early 20th century who made and artistic genre filled with abstract symbolism. Holding a white silk handkerchief the dancer moves in coordination with his minute foot movements expressed in selflessness by swaying the scarf in majestic gestures in the air. This is thought to be sending his heart to communicate with the universe.
Seoljanggu, a solo performance of janggu is an embodiment of brilliant rhythms and gestures, played in the context of a pangut performance. Composing patterns from the three major provinces of Korea- Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, Honam and Yeongnam the presentation is highly accomplished in sophistication and delicacy of rhythm and rhyme. The two sticks used on the janggu drum represent two contrasting tone colours and pitch levels.
Seoljanggu begins with the daseuruem section which is the warming up bit and is then followed by a colourful array of hwimori, gutgeori, deondeokgungi, hwimori rhythms.
These were synchronised with the graceful dance steps from Nigerian performers who gave a resounding spice of energetic and impressive dance steps. The Kwari dancers of Benue State, Gbagyi, Urhobo disco troupes along with FCT Choral Voices and the Unity Dance performers gave the audience a blend of traditional steps like none they had ever seen before.
Former Prime Minister of South Korea and Special Envoy to Nigeria Chung Un-Chan, noted that, “Even though there is a slight time gap, our two countries have been moving along a similar course of national development following independence. Both Nigeria and Korea accomplished a peaceful change of power from the military to the civilians and have been making progress in all sectors, including democracy and economic development. As Korea is an exemplary case of robust economic growth combined with democracy, we are now witnessing another example being created in Nigeria.
Ambassador Park Young-Kuk expressed his conviction that Nigeria too will follow suit in the near future, since both countries are rich in the most important resources of all, that is, people with strong will power who believe they can make a change, nurtured by rich culture strengthened by history. In this connection, the Korean cultural troupe’s celebration becomes all the more meaningful in this connection.