Korean Nongle Dance Intangible Cultural Heritage

Korean Nongle Dance is a traditional dance of Tieling City, Liaoning Province, and an intangible cultural heritage.

Nongrak Dance is one of the traditional dances of the Korean people, which has been widely spread in the Korean folklore. Tieling City in the northern part of Liaoning Province is a multi-ethnic settlement area, and the mural paintings around the 5th century found in the tombs unearthed in and around Tieling graphically depict the scenes of joyful dances of the ancestors of the Korean people.

The Tieling Korean Nongle Dance, which originated from ritualistic activities and gradually evolved into a self-indulgent dance in the course of its development, is now circulating among the Koreans in the Tieling area, where it is performed on every happy day.

On June 14, 2008, the Korean Nongle Dance was approved by the State Council to be included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list, Heritage No. III-24, and in 2009, the Korean Nongle Dance was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Performance Forms

The Korean Nongrak Dance has a strong sense of life, and is generally performed in two forms: an episodic performance in the form of dances and mimes, and a group dance, which is mainly a traditional dance performed during the celebration of harvests or festivals. Among them, the more representative ones are the Elephant Hat Dance, the Beggar Dance and the Long Drum Dance.

The Korean Nongle Dance, the Elephant Hat Dance, is a group performance, which is very elaborate and divided into certain steps and procedures. First of all, when the music starts, the first short elephant hat is thrown with a tambourine to make simple dance movements; then the middle elephant hat is changed with a long drum to make body movements such as spinning, whirling and turning; finally, one to three people throw the long elephant hat to make difficult movements such as jumping on the paper strips, going up the steps and circling the people so that the dance reaches the highest climax.

Korean Nongle Dance Beggar Dance entry, the front of the dance team, is the head of the "elephant hat" of the young man and the old man, they kept shaking the hat on the colorful silk. Immediately behind them is the commander-in-chief of the whole dance team, an old man who is highly respected in the village. Holding a cymbal in his hand, he walks and beats the rhythm, guiding the dance team out.

There are two drummers, two long drummers, young men and women, and older people. At the end of the line are the men who perform the "double dance". On their shoulders stands a child, who holds colored silks (or flowers) in his hands and keeps on dancing.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Nongle Dance