Traditional Dance - I

Since the age of the tribal states, Koreans have offered songs and dances to heaven and the spirits in communal ceremonies connected with agriculture.According to Goguryeo murals and the History of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk Sagi, 1146), the dancers of the Goguryeo period wore colorful costumes and performed dances to the accompaniment of music. In the early 7th century a man from Baekje named Mimaji performed masked dances at various temples in Japan. The masks are still preserved today in the Todaiji Temple in Nara. Unified Silla inherited the dance traditions of the Three Kingdoms.
The crosscultural exchanges with Tang China spun off diverse dances. Dances with specific choreography began to appear in court pieces such as Muaemu, Cheoyongmu, and Sangyeommu. In the Goryeo were period other dances were imported from Song China and performed at various national ceremonies including banquets in honor of distinguished guests, the Buddhist Festival of Eight Vows (Palgwanhoe), and the Lantern Festival (Yeondeunghoe). As a result, a distinction began to be made between native dances, known as hyangak jeongjae, and those imported from China, dangak jeongjae.

Korean traditional dance can be broadly divided into court dance and folk dance. Court dance includes jeongjaemu, dances performed at banquets, and ilmu, the line dances performed in Confucian rituals. Banquet Dances are subdivided into native hyangak jeongjae and Tang-derived dangak jeongjae. Hyangak jeongjae and dangak jeongjae can be distinguished by the manner in which the dancers enter and exit, the calls that mark the beginning and end of a dance, the presence or absence of a spoken greeting, and the lyrics. In the Goryeo period these distinctions were rigidly maintained. Ilmu can be further categorized into civil dance, munmu, and military dance, mumu.