Sejong University-Multicultural Research Institute
the place that Imagine Asia through the Language of Dance
Two new institutions would join the CPI program in 2019. Maeuldanim designs diverse cultural projects for local communities, whereas the Research Institute of Multiculturalism, Sejong University, plans cultural events and conducts research on multicultural families. The institute aims to promote multicultural projects through cultural arts performances for marginal groups. Director Lim Jeonghee introduces their plan for the CPI this year.
Please introduce the activities of the Research Institute of Multiculturalism,
Sejong University, and your plan for the Cultural Partnership Initiative this year.
The Research Institute of Multiculturalism, Sejong University, was founded to develop cultural arts performances, educational programs, and academic research, targeting multicultural families in South Korea.
For the Cultural Partnership Initiative this year, we plan to develop performances and research programs by blending traditional arts from diverse Asian countries. It will be conducted through a collaborative work with the Department of Korean Traditional Dance, which has a wide range of artists and an abundant experience in original performances. To this end, we will invite three dancers from Vietnam and Mongolia.
We are expecting that this project will make a positive effect to develop original works for multicultural families in South Korea by successfully merging Korean traditional arts with other Asian traditional works.
In the long term, we plan to cultivate a multinational arts program that encompasses about 10 Asian traditional dances, which can promote arts exchange and collaboration among diverse countries.
Sejong University
What motivates your institute to participate in the CPI program?
We have given a lot of thought on the medium to incorporate different cultures while operating the Research Institute of Multiculturalism. We recognized how beautiful and touching it was when people communicated with their bodies and sounds through our dance program despite the language barriers. We then realized the importance of research about dancers from different cultures and their harmonious body movements. We believed that the Cultural Partnership Initiative program would be a great fit for our goals and, thus, applied as a participating institution.
What is the most distinctive feature of the CPI program by the Research Institute of Multiculturalism of Sejong University?
As I mentioned before, the Research Institute of Multiculturalism creates diverse cultural arts events and educational programs for multicultural families in South Korea. We also aim to develop educational programs for multicultural performances and cultural blending. We plan to produce an original work based on traditional Asian cultures by communicating and collaborating with dancers from Mongolia and Vietnam. Also, we’d like to introduce this original work outside of South Korea as an exemplary cultural arts program.
What is your area of focus as
a new member of CPI?
We believe that choosing great partners is one of the most important elements. We intend to select dancers who are affiliated with traditional arts associations or institutions, who have experience in performing traditional dances and who can collaborate for the work based on Korean and their traditional dances. As such, we will examine the performance programs or visual recordings of dancers to confirm their qualifications. In addition, we would like to consider open-mindedness and positive attitudes towards cultural exchange works. Of course, we will do our best for smooth communication between us and our participants.
What do you look forward to and want to achieve the most in the CPI program this year?
We hope to gradually expand our international exchange program by establishing a close network with various traditional arts institutions in Asia. We would also like to create original works based on diverse Asian traditional dances by placing South Korea as a hub of the project and, furthermore, develop this into a fusional performance that incorporates at least 10 traditional dances. Building an Asian traditional dance database, networking with related institutions abroad, and continuously sharing cultural arts programs for multicultural organizations are also our goals. Lastly, we plan to conduct diverse collaborative research about the participants of our long-term programs.
