For hundreds of audience members at Balai Sarbini in South Jakarta, the Korean contemporary dance show recently staged as part of the ASEAN Korea Festival, was more than just a dance show.

They laughed at the jokes the dancers made, they watched carefully as the dancers did their semi-theatrical comedy act, they even clapped their hands as the dancers performed their dynamic movements.

Laughter filled the air when EDx2 Dance Company opened their act with a comedic mime routine performed by two dancers through Modern Feeling dance.

While the audience expected more humor, the dancers unpredictably started to dance, surprising the audience with their unusual movements.

Modern Feeling dance features diverse forms such as hip hop, martial arts and acrobatics, which are used to portray everyday behavior '€” encounter, conflict, competition and indifference '€” through elaborate arrangements.

The dance routine, choreographed by Lee In-soo, has been widely performed at the world'€™s premier theaters and festivals in Spain, Poland, Germany, the US, Mexico and Cuba.

After their refreshing performance, another dance troop called Eun-Ju Shin Dance Company entertained the
audience.

Clad in white Korean-style costumes, four dancers performed Majigut, a Shaman ritual that has been practiced since ancient times. Among the many variations of gut, Majigut is the most important to all shamans because it is held only once a year, or every three years.

Pure white: Dancers perform Majigut, a Shaman ritual that has been practiced since ancient times.

The dance portrays a ritual dance that is meant to purify the injustices of contemporary society through a reinterpretation of the original gut procedures and formalities.  

Traditional drummers also livened up the Majigut dance.

The hall was dimly lit when the dance was over, but it did not last long.

The stage lights came back on, highlighting 10 dancers that appeared on the floor before they got onto the stage to perform What We'€™ve Lost.

The What We'€™ve Lost dance examines themes of imagination and reality, fantasy and illusion, and retrospection and memory, by setting up a plot on the stage combined with expressive dance movements derived from mime.

Dancers dressed as schoolgirls, kids and neighborhood hoodlums appeared in the first scene to create a crowd of people. They played imaginary football with an invisible ball.

Each character in the dance used mime movements that became more animated and faster minute after minute.

In the second scene of the dance, the choreographer tried to create intensely moving images using the breathing and movement.

Here, the dancers tried to depict the bittersweet imagination of a disabled person through the dance. Before the dance ended, the lead dancer talked to the audience about the purpose of one'€™s life.

Combining hip hop and contemporary dance, the choreographer created a diverse tapestry of body movements as the background to highlight idiosyncratic characters and the theatrical machinations of storytelling to graft theater with dance.

After a healthy dosage of unique modern dance, the audience was taken aback by another Korean dance performance, as Eun-Ju Shin Dance Company performed Heoteun Bukchum, or Unconventional Drum Dance.

Drum roll: Three drummers from the Eun-Ju Shin Dance Company form a line in the Heoteun Bukchum, or Unconventional Drum Dance. The folk dance is usually performed in an unconventional manner during celebrations related to the 24 seasonal periods of the agriculture cycle, locally known as jeolgi.

The performers wore two types of head dresses: One performer wore a flowery hat and the others wore hats with long ribbon attached to them that drummers can spin and flip by moving their heads.

The strong and dynamic drum performance continued '€” no hats this time '€” as they accompanied the closing dance of the show, Sin Busan Deotbaaegshum (New Busan Regional Dance).

The dance is meant to ward off evil spirits, thus, it features wide and expansive dance movements. Nevertheless, the dancers never failed to always put big smiles on their faces and with the upbeat tempo of the drum, the performers seemingly tried to transfer the vibrant energy to the audience.

Flying drum: With a traditional Korean drum, Shin Eun-ju from Eun-Ju Shin Dance Company performs the Sin Busan Deotbaaegshum (New Busan Regional Dance).

And it worked.

Balai Sarbini turned into a hand clapping fest, changing the cool and dimly lit hall into a warm and lively dancing ground for all.

'€œIt'€™s so festive! They danced energetically, I like that,'€ said an audience member who sat behind The Jakarta Post.  

The contemporary dance show was just one of the events of the festival.

Yoon Keum-jin, the director of the culture and arts department of the Korea Foundation, the Korea Festival'€™s organizer, said the festival also included various live performances, exhibitions and film screenings as well as a special forum and lecture series.

'€œIt is a three-month long festival with a comprehensive cultural program that seeks to introduce Korean culture and arts to the people of ASEAN,'€ she said.  

The festival will run until Aug. 23 altogether in Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines.

- Photos by JP/Nurhayati