Hi everyone! My name is Valeriia. Welcome again to Cultural evenings at
Foyer International. The summer is here, and for many of us
summer is the time of traveling and non-stop dancing.
Therefore, I am inviting you today to travel from East to West
and to learn four different dance cultures.
So, get ready! Our first stop is South Korea.
Let’s talk and let’s dance!
Hi Ji! Thank you for being here tonight with us.
and this was a very beautiful melody you played.
Could you tell me, what’s the name of this instrument?
Yeah, thank you for having me. This instrument is called
Gayageum. And it’s a traditional. One of the traditional instruments
of South Korea. And this is actually a modern version of Gayageum.
The traditional one has only 12 strings.
So, it’s limited to what types of songs you can play.
This one is a modern version with 25 strings. (Yeah, exactly). And you can play
not only ancient melodies but modern as well.
Yeah, that’s what I like.
Where did you find this instrument in Germany?
Germany? I brought this
from South Korea. Well, actually, my parents.
I came here first without the instrument
and then I wanted it, And my parents wanted to
visit me. And I asked them to bring It with them. That’s cool. (Yeah).
What does Korean traditional dance look like?
The thing about Korean dance – we always wear
This long Hanbok dress. So your legs are
concealed from the audience. So, we try to express more with
arms and shoulders.
And compare to ballet, we don’t do like high kicks
or point our feet. And when you step, you always start
with heels, not with a point.
And when did you learn this traditional dance?
I started pretty early.
When I was three years old – my parents told me – we went to
a concert, dance concert. And I was fascinated about the performance.
Since then I went to their room and begged that to learn Korean dance.
They didn’t want me to learn it that early because I was still wearing diapers.
But at the end they gave up and I started when I was three years old.
Until I was 11 because we moved to other place, and my parents didn’t
want me to pursue
dancing because they thought studying is more important.
It's normal in Asian country. I think, in many countries parents
would insist to choose education and science
Rather than dancing. How it is popular –
Korean traditional dance – now in Korea? Do many
children try it or it's not popular anymore?
Maybe, it's less popular than ballet but there are still
Girls who go to Korean Dance school. You can also
major in Korean dance in universities. Yeah. Do boys dance
Korean traditional dances or there is not really such a dance?
I would say, it’s not very normal.
Which other dances do you also dance?
i learned a bit of ballet, and modern dance, and Jazz dance,
and i currently give a dance course
in Hochschulsport, jazz dance.
What is dancing for you?
I think, for me it’s a way to express
your emotions, it also applies when I play music.
And it’s a thing that I enjoy and it also makes me happy.
Now we are in our improvised India and we will talk
about Bollywood dance, of course. Here we have Megha from India.
Hi! Hi, thank you for being with us tonight.
Thank you for having me here. So, you are dancing Bollywood, right? (Yeah).
Since what age? Since I was in fourth standard.
Since then I am dancing Bollywood, 
semi-classical.
Is it like a popular thing for Indian girls to go and practice
Bollywood dances since childhood? No, it’s not really a tradition but
Yeah, because we love dancing. So as a kid you always
learn dancing and so we join
classes for Bollywood for
semi-classical or classical. Do you
really like Bollywood movies yourself?
I used to love Bollywood movies when I was young or when I was in India,
But recently I have made my
choice a little bit filtered. But I always
enjoy watching Bollywood movies.
And what’s your favorite movie?
It’s Kal Ho Naa Ho because it’s all
a love story, and it has this
amazing Bollywood song, and I performed on this song when I
was young. So, it’s romantic, plus it’s emotional,
plus it’s a drama movie.
And what’s your favorite
Bollywood actor? Or the best dancer in Bollywood?
Dancer, I would say, I would say, Deepika Padukone
or like Madhuri Dixit, she is like a diva
For Bollywood. She has done.. She is like the diva for
Bollywood dancing. And the choreographer, I would say, Saroj Khan,
She just expired 3rd of July
So, she was really old and she was a kind of era in Bollywood
for dancing. Her expressions, her moves, her everything
was amazing. So, for all the learners, dance learners,
who are learning to dance in India,
she is like an inspiration for everybody.
Okay. So, if I understand correctly the principles of Bollywood dance
each dance belongs to a certain song.
and when you are dancing you express and show what the songs says about.
Is that correct?
Yeah, most of the time.
It’s a way for us to express our emotions
or like, you know, celebrations and all.
So, like, you hear the song and then you
show with your movements. Yeah, like if you say
the classical dances like Bharatanatyam, Kathak
Like typical classical, Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi it's all about storytelling.
They always try to tell stories about different cultures,
through their expressions, or like hand gestures and movements.
If you remember, once we were dancing an
old Panjabi song And the lyrics was something like
“Hey, beautiful girl, come sit with me in the car, and we drive”.
How would you show it? Because, I remember,
this movement, it means a man. Ah, that one?
So, it was a Panjabi song.
[imitates the song]
So basically this one means… a man and this one means a girl.
And that means a car.
Final question: What is dance for you?
Dance for me... it's kind of my safe space. It’s a kind of
my way to express my emotions.
So, welcome to sunny Africa and precisely Uganda!
Here we have Sarah (Yes).
Sarah is a professional dancer, we can say.
Thank you for the compliment.
Which styles do you personally dance?
I am from Uganda in Africa and I do African movements,
Afro house movements, I do hip hop, I do dance hall,
I do Latin movements and I do contemporary, yes.
Cool, and how long Have you been dancing? I started professionally when I was 16,
but for the traditional part - from school,
as a child I was dancing, so, yeah. Because you have to learn the
basics of your culture and who you are.
So, I was doing it when I was young. Every country has different movements.
Every country has a richness of this tradition, of culture,
of customs, of tribes, of language, of musicality,
of drums, of sound. So, every country has different components.
And dance, as in general, has its components. We have sound,
we have body movements, we have rhythm,  we have breath. So, most African movements
or most traditional movements are grounded
And, for example, in contemporary you are really grounded, and you are flawless.
You breathe, and your hands are wave, and your neck is flawless, you know. So, we have that.
We have different types to different events,
to ceremonies, to funerals, to marriages, to graduation, so we have different things.
But I will definitely say that it is a very
very important aspect to modern dance.
African movements are really a big foundation, yes.
Are there a lot of emotions inside the African dance or
It’s more about technics? Yes, definitely.
We have so many emotions. We have the sound. The sound is really important.
For example, with the drums sound.
Like, for example, the morning, the drums sound pa-pa-pa-pa,
Everybody is awakened, you know. It’s a morning, energetic –
It’s “go work, go to the field”, “Go have fest, go do farming”.
So, it’s a lot of sound and a lot of emotions. Strong emotions.
And when is somebody is sick or somebody is dying, or somebody has died.
(And you still dance). It’s sad, it’s sad.
No, we have different, like I said, different cultures, have a different way
moving and portraying themselves.
So, and there is a natural dance, funeral, should I say? A natural death dance
Where everybody is mourning, everything is sad. You know,
The plants are sad, the water is sad, you know,
The animals are sad, the environment is sad. So, for Africa,
If not all the time moving, it’s a surrounding,
That is also movement for us, yes.
And we have ceremonies. When I am getting married or
Somebody is getting married, that’s a big celebration in the community, you know,
party will be aligned, you know, On the road and probably shouting and everybody.
You don’t have to have an invite, You know. You just hear
the music and you just join in. It’s a collective
hand, fullness, you know. Once you hear the drums,
if you want to sing, of course, you run and you see where the party is.
So, definitely, yes.
Are there different dances for men and women?
Or are there any dances specifically for women or men?
Yes, we have. For example, my country, Uganda,
we have many tribes, many cultures, many
tribes.
And my tribe is a princess, it’s a royalty,
it's the king and the queen, so the
the women are treated as
royalness you know. They're pampered,
they're loved and the men are strong. You have to be strong and manly,
no crying and no, you know, being soft. You have to be so hard.
So, we have different dance movements for men and for ladies.
For example, in my culture the ladies are grounded.
The hands are like this. And we use the waist.
And the men use more the chest and the feet.
And they are jumping, and they are jumping and turning. And the ladies are more elegant.
Then maybe we will try a couple of movements. How the princesses in your tribe dance (Yeah, sure).
So, let’s try it! We are going to go through different movements.
So, we are going to step with the feet. This is called Maganda dance.
From Uganda – Baganda, Maganda.
So you go heel, heel, heel, heel. Now the hands are always levered.
and you tiff. Can you tiif? Yeah!
So you open your legs a little bit
and then you move: one and two, three
and four. Now you have to move your hip: hip out, hip out. Now you have to coordinate
everything together. And you move, tat-tat-tat-tat. Yes!
Because it's so elegant. Nice!
Now you're going to make it to the back.
One and two and three and four. And one one - now, you can look at your hand -
and four. And one and two and three
and four. Now, you have to move your hips. Ready?
Yes, good job! So I teach you one with the
hands:
Like a prayer - open, hold, open, hold, open - and move your feet back.
Move, back.
Now with your hand.
Now you're gonna go lower and like push
your leg,
yeah you're bending and then you go five, six, seven, eight.
Nice. Okay, the last one.
So we have the hand here -  the other hand -, this one is here. So you have to step, out,
step, out. You have to push your hips tight.
Give it to them. One and two and three and
four and five and six and seven. And faster
and faster and turn. (Laughing.)
Yes good job. That was beautiful.
Okay let's see your dance.
Yes, welcome to my world, let's go!
So, hi Raul, how are you? Good, and you? Me too, thank you. You are coming from Mexico
but you will represent Cuban salsa in our video.
Why is that? Oh, that’s because I just Simply like Cuban salsa a lot. Actually,
in Mexico when you grow up, you listen a lot to Latin music.
It could be salsa, bachata, cumbia. So, one of the dances or music that
identified hereIn Germany, it was Cuban salsa. I could
learn here and it was also very popular all over Germany and Europe.
How long have you been dancing Cuban salsa?
I’ve been dancing for like four years. Maybe,
very intensively, yeah.
And you are teaching? Yes, actually
Some friends and I, we were very much into Cuban salsa
learning in different cities from different Cuban dancers.
We learned a lot and we liked the idea, of Why not teaching here in Goettingen.
And that’s what we are doing now for more than a year already.
We have a group called Salseros Goettingen, We’ve been teaching Cuban salsa.
Okay, can you tell me the difference between
Cuban salsa and other types of salsa?
Yes, for example, you have the Mambo or the LA salsa.
These were born more in the US. And they dance it more in the line
but Cuban salsa is more in a circle, It’s a little bit more relaxed, I would say.
Also Cuban salsa can have influences from other dances
And you have also Puerto Rican salsa, Colombian salsa,
Salsa calena, which is also very popular.
So, if you dance one salsa, you can probably dance the other ones
With other people but they have their own style too.
And you would say that salsa is like a social dance, right?
Yes, salsa is a social dance. From what I know, you are also looking
at other dances here, for this video, but this one
is a dance that you can learn and you can go to a salsa party
and dance with anyone. It’s like playing basketball or football If you know how to do it.
You can go to the court, you don’t have to know the people,
you make some teams, you play.
You’re going to meet people that have higher level or lowe level,
but everybody can have fun. That’s a social dance. I just go “Do you want to dance?”
and you say “yeah, okay”, and we dance.
I read a quote that Cuban salsa has 3 main ingredients;
Female, male and the feeling of music. Do you agree with that?
This is a great point you mentioned, because I always tell people
learning with us that you have to dance with your partner to the music.
This is a communication, it's
a connection with your partner. And to the music.
So it’s very important to listen to the music.
Some songs can be
more crazy, you enjoy more, some can be a bit more romantic – so you
have to understand what you are listening to but also that you learn
dancing with someone. You are not dancing alone. So, this quote is great.
So, if we say social dance, male, female, feeling of music
What do you do if you don’t like a person you are dancing with?
Well, I mean, sometimes it can happen that
there is no connection or for some reason you don’t like dancing
with this person, I think, the nice thing is to finish the song
and say “thank you” and then leave. If it’s really hard to finish the song,
you say “Sorry, I am not feeling good” but I think, it’s a bit polite to finish the song
and try to enjoy it. Then say “okay, thank you” and then you can
dance with someone else.
So, rule number one. If you don’t like
a person you are dancing with, better still to finish the song.
And then you can choose another one. Now we are trying to learn a little bit of Cuban salsa.
Just basic steps. And maybe if I can learn it,
you also can learn it. So, let’s try it (For sure.)
What would be the basic steps?
So, the basic steps: You start - because you're the follower -
with the the first count to the
back.
And then we can go: one, two, three, and
then you come
five, six, seven.
Your arms are natural, like you're walking.
Okay, where do I look?
At you? That depends on you. (laughing)
And then we can also try the side step.
You do a step to the side, like pa-pa-pa, pa-pa-pa.
That's good, yeah. One, two, three - to the
back,
and yeah, four, five, six, seven.
We can try a step called
mariposa which means butterfly where you go back.
It's so easy to learn something. (laughing)
So, where do partners look when they are dancing?
Right in the eyes? You can look in the eyes but not the whole time.
So, I wouldn’t be looking at you in the eyes, I would be more focused trying to dance.
Okay, maybe I look at you a little bit
but not the whole time. I think, that’s a bit creepy. And also sometimes
people have to be very focused, so they just look anywhere
but it’s nice to have some contact, that you know that this person is here
and you are also here. And you are together  dancing, right?
So, did you like the class? Yeah, of course, I learned a lot of things
in these 30 seconds. That was fast, that was fast. So, if you want to keep learning or
someone else wants to learn, you can find our Facebook page – Salseros Goettingen –
and there we offer different Cuban salsa classes.
All the links you can find below the video, as usually,
all the profile, Instagram pages, Facebook pages, everything is there, just check it out.
I’m a little bit sad to say that it was the last video for this semester,
but hopefully, we will see each other next semester
And if you have any suggestions, please, just write your comments below the video
or find us on Instagram or Facebook.
It was a pleasure to be with you all these three videos.
And have a great summer break!
