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| "See you, I'm home," a dance performance by the National Dance Company of Korea of the National Theater of Korea (NTOK) / Courtesy of NTOK |
By Park Ji-won
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| Poster for "See you, I'm home," a dance performance by the National Dance Company of Korea of the National Theater of Korea (NTOK) / Courtesy of NTOK |
Forty-six dancers play shamans who had to face drastic life changes due to the initiation in the performance, titled "See you, I'm home," which is choreographed by Sohn In-young, artistic director of the art troupe, composed by music director Jang Young-gyu and directed by Yun Jae-won, concept writer of the series "The School Nurse Files."
An ordinary person becomes a shaman through naerimgut. In many cases, those who are born as shamans are known to suffer unknown diseases or auditory hallucinations before becoming shamans and the ritual is considered to be cleansing the symptoms. During the ritual, a shaman-to-be sometimes is tested to resolve difficult tasks such as standing on a blade.
The performance shows shamans in various stages of the profession participating in the initiation ritual. In the first act, the trainee, who is about to be possessed by a spirit, prepares for the ritual with help from a supporter and a senior shaman. The ritual is showcased in the second act while the third act describes the daily life of the newly possessed shaman after the ritual.
"We adopted the initiation ritual as a material as it is a ceremonial event of entering a new world … Choreographically, I focused on dynamic emotional changes of the three participants ― trainee, assistant and senior shaman ― as well as their relationships," Sohn said in a press release.
Sohn considered that a shaman's work switching between ordinary and unordinary lives via the human body resembles the life of dancers, the NTOK said in the release.
The NTOK added the dance performance focuses more on the meaning of having a calling which is to devote oneself to something meaningful, rather than describing the detailed procedures of shaman rituals and performances.
Music director Jang, who also composed the music of the film, "The Wailing," which included scenes of shaman rituals, adopted the rhythms commonly used in shamanism music. But he stressed that the music in this performance may not hew as close to authentic.
Director Yun made the stage set by using carpet and curtains, as the ritual is normally held in a very private place like a house in the countryside. Walls are installed on both sides of the stage, with one wall painted gold to symbolize the spirit world of shamanism, and the other wall is glass to express the material world.
