FREE (No tickets or RSVP required; first-come, first-served)
Celebrate Day of the Dead, Halloween, and All Saints Day with hands-on festive fun for the whole family! Be sure to wear your costume and join us for an afternoon of spooky songs, dances and crafts. Rob Ross will lead children in a sing-a-long of silly and spooky songs. Create Mexican sugar skulls with Aurelia Fernandez or Peruvian clay animals with Abya Yala and place them in our Day of the Dead altar or take them home with you! Scare away the annoying spirits with the Korean Bong San Tal Choom dance! Or make a mask or an All Saints Day medallion! Join us!
Bong San Tal Choom
The Bongsan Mask Dance Drama is a mask dance drama from Korea. The original play is in 7 acts. We will be teaching the choreography from Act 2 of the Drama Bong San Tal Choom. The dance setting in 12/8 meter called kkaeki-choom is quite lively. We will encourage children to jump, bend, and stretch and leap while learning about Korean dance and culture.
On the basis of origin, the Korean mask dance dramas were based upon rituals to scare away bad, annoying and evil spirits, These community based rituals evolved and became less of a tactic to scare away the spirits and became entertainment, much like the origins of Halloween in the past and present use of Halloween today.
These plays, unlike modern western dramas or plays where there is talking [plays] or singing [musicals and opera], the difference here is that the drama is primarily ‘danced’, although there is some ‘dialogue’ and ‘singing’.
We will be teaching the dancing fundamentals [Kibon] of Bong San Tal Choom which is typical for most mask dance dramas from Korea. We will learn the character of Mokjung. Mokjung has the power to drive away evil spirits and bad luck. He performs a whirling, stomping dance each Year to guarantee good luck for the next twelve months.