By Lee Hyo-won
Amid news of cross-border shelling on the Korean Peninsula, a United Nations official insists that the two Koreas could reunite through the art of dance.
“My dream is to unify Korea through dance first — what the politicians can’t do, we can do. I know you’re smiling but I’m dead serious,” Alkis Faftis, president of UNESCO’s International Dance Council (CID), told reporters in Seoul, Wednesday.
Faftis expressed confidence in his dream — CID has in the past brought together dancers from formerly divided parts of Yugoslavia right after the war, and also united those from areas of conflict in Cyprus and from different religious backgrounds in Israel.
While CID has many members throughout Asia, it only has two headquarters in the region, and curiously enough, both of them are located on the Korean Peninsula — one in Seoul and the other in Pyongyang.
It seems North Korea is not completely a “hermit kingdom” when it comes to dance — the Pyongyang branch is rather reserved in offering news about the local arts scene, said Faftis, but it was launched before the one here, in 1992, and made waves when it presented a revolutionary method to transcribe choreography.
“Dance is sometimes more powerful than politics. There are only two sections in Asia, and I’d like to use them as a stepping stone to the rest of Asia,” he said, explaining that as much as the global dance body was founded in Paris in 1973, it has strong roots in Europe — CID expanded its sphere of influence to the Americas and Africa, but has yet to reach Asia. Nevertheless the organization currently has over 5,000 members in 155 countries worldwide.
In its foray into the Far East, the president sees Korea as a crucial starting point. But first, he said, CID must strengthen its presence here and envisions creating centers in every major city around the country, which can then be linked with other points to be established around Asia.
Faftis was in town to take part of a symposium Wednesday organized by the Seoul section of CID to discuss the Korean Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports’ initiative to create a pan-Asian dance troupe.
“I’m happy to be able to meet Asian dancers and related specialists — I’ve never had this opportunity,” he said, and also expressed the U.N. organization’s interest in supporting the project. “I appreciate what Lee Jong-ho (head of the CID Seoul Section) is doing in Korea.”
The president, moreover, urged the local dance scene to expand its horizons.
“Korean dance is not seen (in the rest of the world),” he said on Korean dance’s lack of international exposure. “I think (the symposium) is a symbolic gesture, which is good, but it doesn’t solve the problem. Korea needs to export dance just as it exports cars. Everyone knows Korean cars but no one knows Korean dance.”
Faftis, a specialist in management and sociology, said Korea should realize the enormous benefits of what he calls “dance mobility” and “dance tourism.”
If he were the culture minister here, he said, he would dispatch professional Korean dancers abroad so they could teach the local art, to take advantage of how the performing arts can be mobile and travel across borders.
The Chinese government has a very strong policy of exporting dancers, for example, while no major American city is without an institution that teaches Indian dance, salsa or tango. These traditions have been actively promoted for 20 years, said Faftis, and are backed by related policies. It’s about time Korea does the same.
“Evangelizing” Korean dance around the world won’t cost much but will reap enormous benefits in the form of tourism. “About half a million people visit Egypt to learn belly dancing, and there are 15 tango schools in Tokyo alone, which regularly send students to Buenos Aires to study.”
Korean dancers and dance troupes themselves can begin with a very simple step — launching English websites. “I looked up ‘dance in Seoul’ on the web and they were all Korean websites and I couldn’t find information in English... No one can ask or invite (Korean dancers) without English websites or information.”
The president said what is needed in the dance world, in Korea and elsewhere, is dance administration. CID-UNESCO is a non-profit organization that does not promote a particular dance form or organize events.
To learn more about the body, visit www.unesco.org/ngo/cid. To learn more about the Seoul section, visit www.sidance.org.