Look at these children. How cute they are! We attend a spectacle organized within a primary school with as public the parents of pupils. It is more exactly a choreography.
On the stage, we see schoolchildren who, two by two, mimic a newlywed couple. They are supposed to have celebrated their marriage according to tradition. Indeed, dressed in “hanbok”, the traditional Korean dress, the boys wear a “samo”, a black horsehair cap with wings; the daughters of a bridal crown named “jokduri”. This is already making adult viewers smile.
The decor and lighting represent a bridal chamber. The newlyweds greet each other. Then the boy tries to kiss the girl. She gently pushes him away. The little groom is overthrown in an exaggerated way. The audience bursts out laughing. This is how the show unfolds, all the more amusing as the little actor-dancers sometimes mime with articulated gestures reminiscent of string puppets. It is indeed a choreography of the kind “kokdugaki chum”, “puppet dance”. It unfolds to music like this…
To talk about another dance performance, let’s talk about a prince-choreographer. This is Hyomyeong, crown prince of Joseon. We are in the first half of the 19th century.
The dolphin is an intelligent young man and also a little artistic genius, especially when it comes to music and dance. He composed several melodies and choreographic works for his parents’ birthday parties. From the age of 18, he presided over the council of ministers in place of the king, his father, plagued by illness and tired by the incessant quarrels of his subjects. In fact, for years, within the court of Joseon marked by the weakening of royal authority, clans have been fighting for power. “How to reconcile them? Hyomyeong wonders. The prince, a rather idealistic young man, in other words somewhat naive, believes that art can be a solution. To be precise, it is for him to bring politicians to share an artistic taste and thus stop hating each other. He then often organized concerts and dance performances by inviting courtiers to attend.
One of these live shows is by Hyomyeong and entitled “Dance of the oriole”. It is a choreography representing the flight of this bird among the weeping willow branches in spring. To get an idea of this, imagine a pretty dancer dressed in yellow, the color of the oriole, and wearing a green belt symbolizing the very flexible branch of the weeping willow.
While the artist prince died prematurely at the age of 22, his choreographic work has come down to us. It is therefore not unseemly to say that “life is short, unless art endures”.
This time, here is a Buddhist dance, the “seungmu”. It is not a question of thinking that it was invented in the religious milieu. No, a bonze or bonzess does not dance. They are people who prefer immobility. In fact, it is easier to imagine a Buddhist monk practicing Zen, a meditation, rather than one who performs certain movements. A dance professional from who knows what era would have been unscrupulous enough to imagine this scene:
The monk, interrupting his meditation, stands up. He looks bewitched. By what he has just discovered in his contemplation? Why not ? As if to express his joy following a spiritual awakening, an illumination, he begins to gently wave the long, wide sleeves of his garment, “loose to the point of covering the sky” as the poet Cho Ji-hun says, the author of a poem aptly titled “Seungmu”. From time to time, the monk stops his movement and fixes his gaze in the air. Then he resumes the performance, which laymen would interpret as a dance. At the end, he goes to a drum. It is this time by means of this percussion that he will express the beating of his joyful heart.
List of melodies of this week
1. “Red cheeks and forehead” performed by Noliteo.
2. “Dance of the oriole” performed by the National Gukak Institute Orchestra.
3. “Seungmu” played by Yi Saeng-gang.