Cultural Art Performance by Jang-seung Eouri Art Troupe, Part 2

There were two main reasons why I wanted to attend this concert  presented by the Jang-Seung Eouri Art Troupe. First, I was hoping to hear again the Dharma drums which I had witnessed at various temples in Korea before. If you've read my earlier posting, you already know how satisfied I was on that score.

The second reason was the Salpuri dance. Korea is well-known for its exuberant and energetic dances by troupes of graceful ladies in jewel-hued hanboks. Salpuri, however, is a solo act by a single female in plain white hanbok and it's slow and restrained. But when I first saw it performed at the Chongdong Theatre, I was riveted. It was such a haunting and moving experience that  I now look forward to any chance of seeing it 'live'. It's been claimed that the dance has shamanistic roots although others maintain that the name of the dance alone is its only link to shamanistic rites as the literal meaning of "salpuri" is to wash away evil spirits.

Another person sees the dance as embodying the essence of Han, meaning  "sorrow, bitterness or unsatisfied desire", a characteristic of Korean art and culture. Click here for this writer's pretty vivid description of the dance. Better still, watch the videoclip below.




So was I satisfied with Ms Jung Kyeong's performance? I'm no dance critic and the concert organisers didn't have the benefit of all the top-notch facilities of the Chongdong Theatre so let's just say she did a fairly decent job but it wasn't as mesmerising as the first time I saw it on a cold autumn evening in Seoul. What I'd really like to do is to go to some remote Buddhist temple in Korea on a full moon night and watch this danced in the open courtyard in the partial darkness.  I want the shivers to run down my back not simply from the low temperatures of the fall season but to recreate a scene I saw in that enigmatic Buddhist movie entitled "Why Has Bodhidharma Left For The East?" by Bae Yong -kyun.

Here are some additional notes on salpuri from a source indicated below:

"Usually a mudang(shaman) presided over the process. Shamanism is a long-held tradition which emerged around the Three Kingdoms era. Salp'uri was the climax of shaman rituals. Its representative by-product is the unique salp'uri rhythmic cycle that has been adapted in other performing arts. Salp'uri is prevalent in the Honam region, the southwestern part of Korea, in the form of ssitkimgut, the soul cleansing shaman rite. This is regarded as the archetype of the present Salp'urich'um which uses a white silk scarf as a key prop. The salp'urich'um dance has been polished over the centuries to add artistic value, and so it is hard today to trace it back to a mere exorcism rite. It was performed in shaman rites accompanied by the rhythms of shinawi (featuring an extensively improvised ensemble with wind and percussion instruments) to attract the interest of spectators. As it was refined into an artistic artform, salp'uri's name changed to ipch'um, chukhungch'um, or sugonch'um.

Although it derived from shaman rites, salp'uri does not carry out any religious function. The dancer, attuning herself to the sorrowful shinawi music, portrays sadness and anxiety in her every step. During this process, the dancer's movement reveals striking energy and movement as she performs in a trance- like state. The salp'uri's rhythmic normal font cycle starts out with slow-paced shinawi rhythms and gradually builds up speed which conveys the dancer's excitement."

Incidentally, I came across this brief abstract entitled "Dynamics of brain electric field during recall of Salpuri dance performance" by Park JR, Yagyu T, Saito N, Kinoshita T, Hirai T.  See below. Have to check with a neurologist what the jargon means but it does sound as intriguing as the dance itself.

Abstract
The brain wave activity of a professional Salpuri dancer was observed while the subject recalled her performance of the Salpuri dance when sitting in a chair with closed eyes. As she recalled the feeling of the ecstatic trance state induced by the dance, an increase in alpha brain activity was observed together with marked frontal midline theta activity. Compared to a resting state, the dynamics of the electrical activity in the brain showed an increase in the global field power integral and a decrease in generalized frequency and spatial complexity.

Click here for the link to Chongdong Theatre. You may or may not see a salpuri performance there now but a good show is usually to be expected there.

LondonKoreanLinks has an interesting article on dance. I learn from its posting that male dancers may also perform the salpuri! Hmm... pardon my bias, but I doubt the effect would be as haunting.



sources:
http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/korea/perform/salpuri.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12509202
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubRo6V4aUc8
http://www.koreafilm.org/feature/100_83.asp