North Korea 2000 - Pongsan Mask Dance

Bongsan Talchum is the 17th Important Intangible Cultural Properties of Korea. It could be characterized as a Korean dance performed while wearing a mask, miming, speaking and even sometimes singing. Bongsan Talchum is not just dances performed by masked dancers but also include significant dramatic content with masked characters portraying people, animals and sometimes supernatural beings.

These folk dramas reflect the frustrations felt by the lower classes towards the Confucian literati Yangban, due to the latter's treatment of the commoners, show the life of the common man and process social problems such as monks who ignore their precepts and men who cast off their old wives.

The Bongsan Mask Dance is a traditional performance describing Korean people's rough but healthy emotions with dance movements. Masks show an outstanding arrangement of black, white, blue, red and yellow. Performers could conceal their social status behind the masks. Dancers make movements by bending their arms and stretching them again, while holding their long sleeves. They jump high as well and extend the motions with their whole body. Their movements are strong, but cheerful and rhythmical as well. Music is played on wind and string instruments as well as percussions. Dancers perform behind the masks with their bold and impressive movements.