CPI Participants of Andong Festival Tourism Foundation
Nam Sung-won(CPI-in charge, Andong Festival Tourism Foundation)
QUESTION 01
Can we have a short overview of the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation's CPI Program and its participants?
This year, the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation hosted four participants from Uzbekistan, India, Vietnam, and Bhutan as part of our CPI Program. The participants included Sherzod Kenjebaev, a dancer from Uzbekistan's Ministry of Culture and Sports; Professor Divya Patel, who teaches Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda; Nguyen Thi Vinh of Viko Education; and Wangchuk Dorji, a member of Bhutan's Royal Academy of Performing Arts. This year’s event, the Maskdance Artist Education Program, focused on Andong's Hahoe Byeolsingut Tallori tradition, Samullori, and traditional dances of Korea.
QUESTION 02
Could you speak a bit about the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation's CPI Program Presentation Performance on December 13th?
The Andong Festival Tourism Foundation hosted the CPI Program Presentation Performance on December 13th, where the four participants presented the traditional dances and cultures of their home country and performed Hahoe Byeolsingut Tallori, Samullori, and Korean traditional dances that they had learned as a part of the CPI Program in Andong for the last five months. Sherzod Kenjebaev(Uzbekistan) performed the role of Bune, Wangchuk Dorji (Bhutan) the role of Monk, Nguyen Thi Vinh (Vietnam) the role of Choraengi, and Divya Patel (India) the role of Halmi. Furthermore. The four participants also coordinated a Janggu playing session and a Korean traditional dance performance. It was a great opportunity for the participants to show what they have learned over their five-month stay to the people of Andong.
QUESTION 03
What was the most memorable interaction you had with the participants of this year's project?
It must be how we coordinated our creative performance. Since we come from different cultural backgrounds, and since we haven't really had a chance to get to know each other, it was at first really difficult to coordinate the moves together. But after a long process we managed to fashion a creative piece and felt a great pride in accomplishing it.
We came up with a creative performance as a part of the 2019 Andong International Maskdance Festival and it was very fulfilling artistically. We did have to work out the differences in opinion over the theme of the festival, Masks of Women, and Women in Masks, but it was certainly rewarding to see the performance being created right in front of our eyes, and to see the participants grow as experts again.
QUESTION 04
What was the biggest accomplishment of the CPI Program for the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation?
I think that the biggest achievement that the CPI Program created for the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation was that it allowed us to demonstrate the culture of Andong to the participants, and to train them to be ambassadors of Andong's culture, even in their home countries. The program didn't stop at a simple experience program for Korean culture. We took our role as transmitters of Korean culture quite seriously, so we were able to create a foundation for not only the cultural exchange of the countries but also the promotion of culture outside Korea, and build the expertise of the participants even further.
Even after returning to their home countries, the participants are planning to host a variety of events to promote Korean culture, so we are looking forward to that quite eagerly.
QUESTION 05
How do you manage and maintain the networks created with the participants of the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation's CPI Program? And do you have any plans to utilize these networks in the future?
In this year, the 10th anniversary of the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation's CPI Program, we maintain our networks with our participants through email and SNS. We also engage continuously with our core partner countries of Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, and others through international exchange projects.
Unfortunately we weren’t able to celebrate our 10th anniversary this year, but this year, but we are putting together an effort to celebrate it next year.
Once we have a more concrete picture of the event, we plan to invite about 15 participants from the previous ten years of the CPI Program for seminars, joint performances, and other projects as a part of the 2020 Andong International Maskdance Festival.
