The photo shows the event’s poster and some photos taken during the event (Photos from the official Facebook page for the Korean embassy in Egypt, Eman Ahmed)
The Korean-Arab Society was established in 2008 to enhance exchange and cooperation between Korea and 22 Arab countries since then they have organized various cultural events in both Korea and the Arab countries. Among those events is the Korea-Arab Friendship Caravan which is held annually in several Arab countries, and this year Egypt hosted the caravan for the third time. Egypt hosted it in its first session in 2009, then again in 2016, and Last but not least in its 17th session this year on October 12th.
In this article, I will share my experience attending this extraordinary event. It was a precious experience for me not just because of the enjoyable program but especially because The Egyptian Academy of Art which I belong to hosted it, and I believe that this is an important step to strengthen the cultural and artistic relations between Egypt and Korea.
The Korean embassy in Egypt announced this event around two weeks ago and the restoration for the tickets was online for free, I was glad to reserve a spot as the demand for Korean culture-related events in Egypt has been extremely high lately.
The event started at 7 p.m. At the beginning of the event, the master of the ceremony explained the event’s program which included 4 performances by the Conservatory Percussion Ensemble, the Jindo National Gugak Center Ensemble, Bittersweet K-pop dance band, and Exrepssion crew team.
Then the ambassador of Korea Kim Yong-Hyun gave an opening speech in which he expressed his gratitude for this cooperation opportunity between the two countries and his pride that the event was held at “Sayed Darwish” theater as it is one of the most important theaters in Egypt that is dedicated for the modern Arabic music pioneer Sayed Darwish. After that, the President of the Academy of Arts gave a speech Dr. Hossam Mohseb, in which he also stressed the importance of the cultural exchange between Egypt and Korea. Then the President of the Korean-Arab Society Koo Ja-Yeol gave the last opening speech, in which he explained the organization's main goals and announced that they have plans to host Egyptian events in Korea next year.
The photo shows the Korean ambassador in Egypt on the right, in the middle shows the advisor to the President of the Academy of Arts, and on the left shows the President of the Korean-Arab Society (Photos from Eman Ahmed)
Then the first performance by the Egyptian Conservatory Percussion Ensemble began, and the ensemble was founded by associate professor Dr. Rehab Ali in 2016. they specialize in playing Western percussion instruments and they participated in various international and local events. They gave an enthusiastic performance. The drums were the perfect choice because of their harmony with the percussion of Korean traditional instruments playing performances that followed.
Some photos during the performance of the Conservatory Percussion Ensemble (Photos from Eman Ahmed)
The second performance was by Jindu National Gugak Center’s ensemble, which was established in 2004 and it is a branch of the National Gugak Center in Korea whose history exceeds 1400 years, the main aim of the center is to promote traditional Korean music among the younger generations and the foreigners, and they managed to do that through their performance at the event.
The performance was divided into various parts each featuring artists who showed the audience various types of traditional Korean music and dance, the first part was a dance performance featuring Korean artists wearing traditional hanbok and holding flowers in their hands, they performed a traditional dance similar to what people watch in the royal historical fiction dramas so we were amazed by this performance and their harmony as they moved together like a group of flying butterflies.
Then the second part was a music performance, they played traditional instruments that looked like drums, and the rhythm and the music were engaging, all the audience interacted with their performance and they created an exciting atmosphere among all the audience. After that, it was a solo Talchum dance performance and it was different from the other performances as it gave kind of gothic vibes to the audience, it felt exciting and new.
Then we thought that their performance had come to an end but they surprised us and entered the theater from the gates and danced and played music among the audience before going up for the stage to give a last performance, in which they mixed dancing and playing the instruments and this was the most exciting part of the whole event to me.
Some photos during the performance of the Jindo National Gugak Center Ensemble (Photos from Eman Ahmed)
The third performance was by the Egyptian K-pop dance band Bittersweet, they won first place in the K-pop World Competition in Egypt this year. They gave a short yet amazing dance performance for the Korean song Halazia by the band ATEEZ. It was the penultimate performance in the event.
Some photos during the performance of Bittersweet (Photos from Eman Ahmed)
The last performance was by Expression crew team, which was established in 1992 and it is the first Asian team to win the Battle of the Year dance competition. They performed their unique musical “MARIONETTE”. It is a non-verbal performance between two different genres, namely B-boying and puppet show. It was a multi-layered performance with many parts using various dance types and music between foreign and Korean songs, quiet and loud songs, solo and group dancing, etc. The most unique part from my point of view was when they made a moving robot car using their moves, clothes, and lighting.
Some photos taken during the performance of Expression Crew team (Photos from Eman Ahmed)
At the event’s closing, all the artists went up to the stage to greet the audience, the Korean ambassador gave a flower bouquet to the conservatory percussion ensemble, the president of the Korean-Arab Society gave a bouquet to Bittersweet band, and then the advisor to the President of the Academy of Arts gave bouquets to the Korean teams, and they took group photos together and with the audience.
Some photos during the closing of the event (Photos from Eman Ahmed)
So, in conclusion, I want to express my pleasure to attend such a marvelous event, in which they mixed the various and distinct artistic styles of the different cultures naturally and harmonically expressing how important are art and music in connecting people.
Keywords:
Korea-Arab Friendship Caravan
Jindo National Gugak Center
Bittersweet
Expression Crew
Conservatory Percussion Ensemble
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