BY JESSICA BROWN
Wagner offers a lot of after-school activities, such as band, cheerleading, and UIL, but the community also offers many after school activities. Recently I joined the Korean American Cultural Center of San Antonio’s (KACCSA) Korean traditional dance team. And if you know me, (and you can ask people in my speech class about this) learning about the Korean culture and language is my passion.
A few weeks ago, the KACCSA dance team went to the Folklife Festival. And although I was not ready to perform yet, it was still very insightful to see what it takes to do a performance, and to see how dedicated the team members are to getting ready and doing their best in their performances so that they can share the Korean culture.
It was also amazing to see all the different cultures that we have right here in San Antonio, Texas. It was great to see so many people sharing their and cultures that they are passionate about.
The real challenge came on the first weekend of spring break, where we got to go to the Border Fest and perform, over four hours away in the city of McAllen. Of course my first performances were over the span of two days. We got to perform for two days three times a day, so you could imagine that we were glad to see the beds in our hotel room.
Everyone did a great job. Some girls had to change multiple times between dances and we had about four to five dances in one performance. I only had to do one or two, but they got up each time and performed.
We wear a Honbok, a Korean traditional dress. It is made up of a white pair of pants, and depending on the performance which influences the color of the skirt, pink, white, or blue. We usually wear two skirts over each other. I wore a pink skirt with a white skirt on top. Then we have jacket like piece of clothing that we wear and like the skirt, the color depends on what dance we are doing. We have to have our hair in a braid, which means we couldn’t have any hair in our face. And we had a headpiece that we wore for one or two performances that we had to take off for other dances. And of course we had our make-up on.
A little bit about our performances: the first dance is the crown dance-hwaganmu. The dancers have white sleeves on their hands and they dance to Korean traditional music, and lasts one to two minutes. The second dance, which I was able to perform, was the fan dance-buchaechum. We all have two fans each and we dance together to create colorful visuals that really make the dance amazing. The third performance was the standing drum dance-damgomu. Three dancers play drums while standing and they bend backwards and spin while they are playing. It is just amazing. The fourth performance was the nanta where drummers all stood in a row and played the drums together to create a rhythm. Then there was the bell shaped drum dance-janggochum, where three dancers have a drum strapped on and they dance as they play. And finally the last dance was the samool nori, where we all sit in a half circle and play the drums and cymbals.
It was also a great experience for my mom as well. I know many students wouldn’t want to hear from another student’s mom, but just look at the effect that teenagers my age had on someone just by dancing and sharing what they have learned (Hey Mom, I'm going to quote you!): “There is nothing that I disliked about the trip. The dedication of the girls to perform three times and how they looked out for each other is what I liked about the trip and the experiences the most.”
It was an awesome experience, and not only were well known bands there, but a lot of local businesses were also there to advertise their business. It was a big event and it was an honor to get to share a part of the culture that I feel so lucky to get to learn.
Wagner offers a lot of after-school activities, such as band, cheerleading, and UIL, but the community also offers many after school activities. Recently I joined the Korean American Cultural Center of San Antonio’s (KACCSA) Korean traditional dance team. And if you know me, (and you can ask people in my speech class about this) learning about the Korean culture and language is my passion.
A few weeks ago, the KACCSA dance team went to the Folklife Festival. And although I was not ready to perform yet, it was still very insightful to see what it takes to do a performance, and to see how dedicated the team members are to getting ready and doing their best in their performances so that they can share the Korean culture.
It was also amazing to see all the different cultures that we have right here in San Antonio, Texas. It was great to see so many people sharing their and cultures that they are passionate about.
The real challenge came on the first weekend of spring break, where we got to go to the Border Fest and perform, over four hours away in the city of McAllen. Of course my first performances were over the span of two days. We got to perform for two days three times a day, so you could imagine that we were glad to see the beds in our hotel room.
Everyone did a great job. Some girls had to change multiple times between dances and we had about four to five dances in one performance. I only had to do one or two, but they got up each time and performed.
We wear a Honbok, a Korean traditional dress. It is made up of a white pair of pants, and depending on the performance which influences the color of the skirt, pink, white, or blue. We usually wear two skirts over each other. I wore a pink skirt with a white skirt on top. Then we have jacket like piece of clothing that we wear and like the skirt, the color depends on what dance we are doing. We have to have our hair in a braid, which means we couldn’t have any hair in our face. And we had a headpiece that we wore for one or two performances that we had to take off for other dances. And of course we had our make-up on.
A little bit about our performances: the first dance is the crown dance-hwaganmu. The dancers have white sleeves on their hands and they dance to Korean traditional music, and lasts one to two minutes. The second dance, which I was able to perform, was the fan dance-buchaechum. We all have two fans each and we dance together to create colorful visuals that really make the dance amazing. The third performance was the standing drum dance-damgomu. Three dancers play drums while standing and they bend backwards and spin while they are playing. It is just amazing. The fourth performance was the nanta where drummers all stood in a row and played the drums together to create a rhythm. Then there was the bell shaped drum dance-janggochum, where three dancers have a drum strapped on and they dance as they play. And finally the last dance was the samool nori, where we all sit in a half circle and play the drums and cymbals.
It was also a great experience for my mom as well. I know many students wouldn’t want to hear from another student’s mom, but just look at the effect that teenagers my age had on someone just by dancing and sharing what they have learned (Hey Mom, I'm going to quote you!): “There is nothing that I disliked about the trip. The dedication of the girls to perform three times and how they looked out for each other is what I liked about the trip and the experiences the most.”
It was an awesome experience, and not only were well known bands there, but a lot of local businesses were also there to advertise their business. It was a big event and it was an honor to get to share a part of the culture that I feel so lucky to get to learn.