HAVE you ever heard about Sogochum, Buchaechum or wHOOL? Egyptians can experience these three types of Korean performance and more at the Korean Culture Festival, a series of seven special events hosted by the Korean Culture and Information Service in five cities: Pretoria and Cape Town in South Africa, Abuja in Nigeria, Izmir in Turkey and Cairo in Egypt. The festivities, which started on May 20 and ends on Wednesday, introduce a wide range of traditional and modern performance arts from Korea, including traditional drum dances and percussion playing, break dancing, film, taekwondo demonstrations, and fusion music. The festival, which also features Korean film showings, marks the 15th anniversary of upgrading diplomatic ties between Egypt and South Korea to the ambassadorial level. Among the traditional dances to be seen at the Cairo Opera House on Wednesday is Sogochum, which is performed by dancers holding a Sogo drum, played exclusively in folk music. Other highlights are Buchaechum, a dance which uses fans, colourful costumes and geometric designs, and the Taepyeongmu, a folk dance depicting a king and queen dancing in a prayer for national prosperity, a good harvest and reign of peace. Contemporary performing arts such as break dance are also represented. Korea has a number of professional break-dance groups, such as Last for One, an internationally renowned group based in Seoul. Another contemporary performance ensemble in the festival is wHOOL, a si -member band that creates new works using traditional Korean instruments, and reinterpreting traditional pieces with a modern sound. The group's name ‘wHOOL', pronounced ‘hool', is a Korean word meaning to be free from everything that is bothersome. Some recent hit Korean movies like “Old Partner” (2008) and “Lifting King Kong” (2009) will be screened at the Cairo Opera House on June 2-5. There will also be joint performances by Korean and local artists, such as the popular Egyptian folkloric piece “El-Leila El-Kabira”, which centres on the last night of a moulid (an old Egyptian popular tradition celebrating the birthdays of Sufi saints). For more information and the festival schedule, please visit www.korea.net.
