By Honorary Reporter Jeanne O from Indonesia

Students of Lee Kyung-hwa's five-day class on the Jindo drum dance perform at the Korean Embassy in Jakarta. (Feny Lisda Salbiah Haztra)

The Korean Cultural Center (KCC) in Indonesia from Jan. 28 to Feb. 1 held a class on the Jindo drum dance (bukchum) taught by Lee Kyung-hwa, an adjunct professor at Korea National University of Arts and master of the dance in the style of the late traditional dance pioneer Park Byung-chun.

The folk dance originated on Jindo Island in Jeollanam-do Province and is designated Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 18 by the provincial government. The drummer uses two drumsticks on both hands and the traditional drum buk strapped around his or her waist. Unlike other drum dances, the Jindo version utilizes many dance movements using both drumsticks.

Park developed the artistic version of the dance to show the depth of its cultural richness through graceful and technical movements and the diversity of traditional Korean rhythm jangdan.

Lee Kyung-hwa performs a solo Jindo drum dance at the Korean Embassy in Jakarta. (Feny Lisda Salbiah Haztra)

This class attracted both Indonesians and ethnic Koreans in Jakarta with around 30 people attending, and the ten combined hours of the class were divided into morning and afternoon sessions. Some students even attended both sessions.

Despite the brevity of their training, 14 students performed what they learned with Lee at the Korean Embassy in Jakarta on the last day of the class.

Two Korea.net Honorary Reporters -- Ria Angelina and myself -- attended this class.

For me, I joined this class because of my love of Korean culture and my desire to learn something new. For a newbie like me, it wasn't an easy dance to learn because the movements were really fast and we had to dance while playing the drum. But thanks to our amazing teacher Lee, I finally got the hang of it.

She explained each movement in an easy way for us to learn and never tired of explaining and showing us each movement until we could follow it. I feel so lucky to be one of her students.

(Bae Ae-ri)

Angelina said, "During the Jindo drum dance class last week, it felt really exciting as time just flew by so fast. Although I practiced the dance for just five days, I was very happy with the teacher, who was very beautiful, kind and patient enough to teach a difficult dance. I hope to see her again and practice with other friends."

Due to time constraints, Lee in January taught a limited number of movements of the dance. She will visit Jakarta again in March to teach the remaining movements.

In addition, the KCC in Indonesia will offer through May classes in this year's first half on samulnori (farmer's percussion troupe), buk nanta (traditional drums), samgomu (three-drum dance), buchaechum (fan dance), K-pop dance and drawing. 

chaey0726@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean