Buchaechum Fan Dance

Buchaechum is the image people carry home from Korean dance: a line of dancers in hanbok, each holding two large fans painted with peony blossom, opening and closing them in sequence so the group forms waves, wheels and a single opening flower. Its origin is more recent than most visitors assume. Choe Seung-hui, the pioneering modern dancer, is credited with shaping the form, and Kim Baek-bong choreographed the version now performed and premiered it in 1954 - so it is a twentieth-century stage creation drawing on shamanic fan use and court dance movement, not a Joseon court dance handed down intact. That does not make it less Korean; it makes it a modern classic, and it is worth knowing so the label "traditional dance" is read correctly. It appears in almost every national performance programme, at folk villages and at cultural centres abroad.

The main sights

• The group figures - waves, wheels and the opening flower.
• The peony fans - two per dancer, opened in sequence.
• The hanbok - long-sleeved, colour-graded across the line.
• The 1954 choreography - a modern stage work, not a court survival.

When to go

Any season; the main performance season runs autumn to spring. It is usually one item within a longer programme of Korean dance rather than a show on its own.

Practical notes

It is a stage piece, not a place to visit, and it is almost always programmed alongside other dances rather than performed alone. The "ancient tradition" framing on tourist material is wrong - it dates from 1954.

Nearby

The National Gugak Center and the Korean Folk Village both programme it.