Volume 1, 2008
Aesthetics and Philosophy of Arts
AeJu Lee
Pages 317-321
춤과 마음
Dance is the gesture of life. In other words, dance is a moving gesture to attain life's aim. As people have will to accomplish their aim, the will of life is expressed in dancing. Dance comes, therefore, from the heart as it arises from the flow of mind. The visible dancing feature begins from invisible mind. While life is made of flesh and mind, dance is the gesture of life containing both. Culture is from people's life. As the ground of culture have people's personal and also collective history, it is the case in Chum (Korean traditional dance). No matter what region or folk is, every ethnical dance express its own condensed culture and heritage. In this respect, though each ethnical traditional dance can't be evaluated, Korean sees people as the small universe. Chum does not simply express our
body. We conceived nature and human as one, as a whole that cannot be dividable. Based on that wisdom, Chum has expressed the holistic gesture of Korean and nature. As summary, Chum is the movement of nature and flow of mind of Korean, expressing our culture.