‘Exciting Mask Dance & Dream’

The 2010 Andong International Mask Dance Festival will feature a treasure of mask dances in Andong and other parts of the world

The 2010 Andong International Mask Dance Festival will open for a 10-day run on Sept. 24 in Andong City from Sept. 24 under the theme “Exciting Mask Dance & A Thousand-year Dream.” It will coincide with the 39th Andong Folklore Festival.
Following are excerpts of a written interview between NewsWorld and Andong Mayor Kim Hwi-dong, concurrently chairman of the board of directors of the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation, who touched on the background, schedule and other details of the festival, including its seamless preparations.
Question: Will you introduce our readers about the background and chronology of the 2010 Andong International Mask Dance Festival?
Answer: A TREASURE OF GLOBAL MASK DANCE CULTURE ― Mask is a globally common culture. You can find people wearing masks reveling at festivals at any place you visit. They express their pleasure, anger, sorrow and delight through masks as if they reveal their own world hidden in their inner mind, so it is the mask dance that makes both spectators and performers happy.
In Andong, there is the Andong International Mask Dance Festival with the theme “mask dance.” The festival that attracts as many as approximately 1 million spectators for a 10-day run is Korea’s representative event dating back to diverse cultural heritage in the region that is inherited without any inclination in historically, geologically and religiously. Andong is not only a rich depository of many cultural properties, but also a place with a plentiful of Oriental aesthetics.
In particular, the Hahoebyeolsinguktalnori, 800 years old, is more exciting and significant. While watching the mask dance, you can take a look into the laughing and crying features of ordinary people of the famous Hahoe Village. Figurative features of each Hahoe mask reflecting each person’s real life and character are recognized both internationally and domestically.
The Andong International Mask Dance Festival made its debut on Oct. 1, 1997, based on diverse cultural resources. Amid active support from Andong citizens, it went from strength to strength to become the nationwide top-rate festival designated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2002 and later grow into the most competitive one among 1,200 festivals across the nation. The Andong International Mask Dance Festival ranked as the most excellent fest for the sixth consecutive year in 2007 even though major events in other areas showed moribund growth. The festival has now gained reputation as one of Korea’s representative traditional and cultural festivals.
Q: Will you tell us about the theme and schedule of the 2010 Andong International Mask Dance Festival?
A: THEME ― EXCITING MASK DANCE & A THOUSAND-YEAR DREAM ― This year’s festival focuses on not only the universality of the mask that can be found at any place around the world, but also the dreams humanities hoped to realize through the mask. The traditional Hahoe Folk Village, which is seeking to be inscribed on the list of the UNESCO World Heritage in coming July, has inherited the Hahoebyeolsinguktalnori from several generations. The Hahoebyeolsinguktalnori, created and performed in residents of the Hahoe Village with Confucian inclination, provide spectators with a chance to have a peek into pleasure, anger, sorrow and delight of this tiny village world. Hahoe villagers would vent monotonousness of their life through the performance of the exciting mask dance, which could also serve as a road leading to a world of hope and dream.
This festival will reenact hope and dreams the Hahoe villagers of the old times had cherished and realize a new thousand-year dream taking imagination wing ― modern-day people’s hope and retreat from their pressure-taut daily life by performing the globally universe mask dance in a dynamic fashion
SCHEDULE ― The 2010 Andong International Mask Dance Festival will take place at the Mask Dance Park, Hahoe Village and other parts of Andong City from Sept. 24-Oct.3. The 39th Andong International Mask Dance Festival, to be organized by the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation under the theme “Exciting Mask Dance & A Thousand-year Dream,” will coincide with the 39th Andong Folklore Festival.
The main programs of the 2010 Andong International Mask Dance Festival will include a parade of Andong residents and tourists wearing masks, a fascinating mask dance competition, a world creative mask-making contest, a nationwide mask dance drawing contest, a mask dance based on a storyline on Andong, a variety performance event featuring eight foreign performing troupes, and a fascinating puppet show. There are also a mask dance learning class and about 100 side events.
Q: Will you specify official programs and events of the 2010 Andong International Mask Dance Festival and preparations to hold it?
A: The festival will feature the 800-year Hahoebyeolsinguktalnori, performances by traditional Korean mask dance troupes and mask dances by some 40 international and Korean mask dance groups, Andong citizens and ordinary people’s mask dances, plays, parades and other performances in which the essence of traditional Korean cultural heritages can be felt with mask dances.
























About 30 traditional Korean folklore events will also take place. To name a few, there will be Andong Chajeonnori (chariot game of the Andong area) with 500 male performers showing their muscular build, which was presented during the opening ceremony of the Expo 2000 Hannover, “Notdaribakki,” a spectacular pageant with hundreds of women in their finest dresses allowing the princess to parade into the city on their own backs, ; “Hyangeupjurae, a Confucian scholars’ alcoholic drinking ritual,; a Confucian scriptures reciting,; “Naebanggasa” (genre of Korean traditional women’s literature) chanting contest,; “Handusilhaengsangsori,” a traditional pallbearers’ dirge of a funeral ceremony,; and “Jojonnonmaegi Event,” transplanting, weeding and harvesting.
The festival will hold the World Mask and Culture Exhibition in which 400 masks from 10 countries will be on display at one place and mask experts from five countries will have vivid discussions on mask cultures. The World Mask and Culture Exhibition will be an event to follow up with the International Mask Arts & Culture Organization (IMACO) Conference 2009, a conference of culture experts from 30 countries around the world held in Bangkok last year. IMACO, the world’s sole organization designed to study masks and mask cultures, holds conferences with an increasing number of members participating with the goal of making Korea and Andong, the center of international exchanges based on the Andong Mask Dance Festival. IMACO’s roles also range from preserving and studying mask cultures of tradition to publicizing the excitement of mask dances and cultural feelings with a concern in the industrialization of mask cultures.
Six foreign troupes will present their performances during the 2010 Andong International Mask Dance Festival, an opportunity to appreciate culture hidden in each country’s mysterious masks.
Noteworthy is a nationwide mask dance contest with a combined 50 million won prize money, which is inviting any persons with a concern in mask dances. “My Own Masks Competition,” : “Mask Dance Contest,” and “Mask dance Parade” will be occasions for spectators to enjoy diverse excitement and festival fevers transcending culture spheres, races and nations. The festival will highlight the quintessence of the most dynamic traditional Korean mask dances and make humanities wearing masks one world of festiveness and excitement. Spectators will be given a good chance to appreciate the essence of traditional Korean culture through experiencing the culture of Andong.
Q: Will you explain your publicity activities to publicize the festival?
A: In an effort to publicize the festival, the Andong City government and the the 2010 Andong International Mask dance Festival Organizing Committee make a nationwide show tour to perform “Habyoli,” a traditional Korean musical children’s version tailored to meet children’s understanding of Hahoebyeolsinguktalnori. They will develop contents of the regional culture industry full of Andong’s humors and characters, participate in foreign and Korean exhibitions and conduct publicity activities through media in major cities and tour agencies.
Q: Will you give more details on tourism resources Andong City boasts of?
A: Andong is a center of Confucian culture inheriting the lifestyle and spirit of old-time scholars with a taste for the arts and literature. A city with classical scholars’ study tradition, Andong has Korean spiritual culture roots as one of highly educational cities around the country, as the city boasts of such major tourist attractions as the Dosan Confucian School, Nongunjeongsa Temple, Hahoe Folk Village, and Korea Studies Advancement Center.
Andong is also a hub of Buddhist culture, which plays a role in the history of traditional Korean spirit. The major features of Buddhism in the Andong area are associated with moves to sublimate Buddhism into an ideal society, so people in the Andong district gain enlightenment and peace of mind while visiting temples. To name a few, there are the Bongjeongsa Temple,; Icheondongseokbulsang, a Buddhist statue,; the Bonghwasa Temple, the Sinsedong 7-story Brick Pagoda, the Jotabdong 5-story Brick Pagoda and Dongbudong 5-story pagoda. There are such folklore cultures as “Chajeonnori,” “Notdaribakki,” Jebiwon, a birth place of a shamanistic religion, and Hahwabyolsingultalnori, a mixture of global mask dance and Korean excitement that can be experienced and only in Andong. Such folklore things as hahoesonyujulbulnori, Handushilhaengsangsori and Jeojeonnongyeo are also seen there. nw

Performers wearing diverse masks during the international festival

(left) Andong Chajeonnori (chariot game of the Andong area) with 500 male performers showing their muscular builds, which was presented during the opening ceremony of the Expo 2000 Hannover, is one of many performances and events, to be presented at the 2010 Andong International Mask Dance Festival. (below) A silver-prize winning photo shows a mask dance parade, part of the festival.

Andong has grown into a city recognized both internationally and domestically for presenting the quintessence of mask dances.