Korea has festivals for everything! I promise you, this is NO exaggeration.
To name a few festivals, there are the: Cherry Blossom Festival, Bull Fighting Festival, Lantern Festival, Harvest Moon Festival, National Folk Art Festival, and there are still many more festivals!! Like I said, a festival for everything!!
So why wouldn't there be a Maskdance Festival?!
A small cultural gathering in Andong (2 hours away from Busan by bus) celebrating and showcasing the many nations that have/use (not really clear on this point) masks.
At first the festival (10/2) seemed a little like a hodge-podge event, but once we got seated and saw some of the performances it was spectacular.
Thailand performed...
along with the Phillippines...
Israel...
and Taiwan...
All exhibited beautiful, mesmerizing dances that gave an interesting insight into their cultures.
The best performance by far was from the all male dance troupe from the Phillippines.
Everyone who's traveled to Manilla says it's the slums... they say don't go there! But I would go, instantly, if I could see these man dance again!!
It was beautiful. Strong. Graceful. Moving. It drove every emotion through you - their movements, their power washed over the crowd. It was a bit exotic at times, but it was amazing. You were captivated with no hope of escape.
What wasn't amazing, was the performance from Israel.
An all female group, directed by an... I don't even know the adjective!
It was awful! It was absurd and not even in an artsy way. It was absolute garbage.
If I were in that ballet company and the director told me to dance around in a black one-piece, wearing 20 feet of stretch aluminum air-duct piping I'd think he'd gone mad. But for some reason, unknown to me, these girls did it. And it was bad!!!
Thankfully, we ended the day with a little arts and crafts. Perfect ending to a culturally, interesting day.
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