In celebration of the 26th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and the Republic of South Africa, the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange (KOFICE) in collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the Republic of South Africa, the Korea National University of Arts and Kukkiwon (National Taekwondo Headquarters), presented a “Culture Connected” performance on Tuesday, 31 July 2018 at the Aula Theatre, University of Pretoria.

The show began with the Medumo Creative Arts performing traditional South African songs and dances followed by one of the most prominent Korean traditional chamber music groups, E-Sang. This music group presented a special programme only for South African people with creative South African music played with a variation of Korean traditional music. The two groups delivered a spectacular collaboration performance with the very well-known South African songs, ‘Wakawaka’ and ‘Shosholoza’.

Students from the Korea National University of Arts (K-Arts), a high-level artistic dance institution established in 1993, performed “Dan Chung” which means harmony of Dan (red colour) and Chung (blue colour) based on the Yin-Yang principle of Oriental Philosophy. With a mix of different colours and beautiful movements, the dancers enchanted the audience of more than eight hundred people, who gave them a huge round of applause.

The grand finale of the event was delivered by the Kukkiwon Taekwondo Demonstration Team. The audience was thrilled and surprised with all the high kicks, jumps, flips, wooden block-breaking, board-smashing and gravity-defying jumps. The demonstration ended with a standing ovation from the audience, when a flag-waving dance of the two countries was performed to K'naan’s ‘Wavin' Flag’, the official anthem of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.