Special lecture-demonstrations on Korean dance and music were presented by Mary Jo Freshley and Bonnie Kim at Chiefess Kapiolani Elementary School on May 10, in a performance supported by the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Folk & Traditional Arts Program.
Special lecture-demonstrations on Korean dance and music were presented by Mary Jo Freshley and Bonnie Kim at Chiefess Kapiolani Elementary School on May 10, in a performance supported by the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Folk & Traditional Arts Program.
The main purposes of the Folk & Traditional Arts Program, which was created in 1983, are to identify and document the diverse ethnic, cultural and occupational folk traditions in Hawaii, to assist in the perpetuation of folk and cultural traditions in Hawaii and to promote public awareness of the beauty and value of folk and traditional arts in Hawaii and the importance of preserving Hawaii’s folk and traditional arts heritage.
Freshley and Kim are recipients of a Folk & Traditional Arts Program Apprenticeship Grant. Freshley has studied Korean dance for 50 years, since she moved to Hawaii from Ohio in the early 1960s. She has been teaching Korean dance at Halla Huhm Korean Dance Studio in Honolulu and at the University of Hawaii at Manoa for many decades.
With the apprenticeship grant, Kim was able to travel to Honolulu monthly for 10 months to study with Freshely at Halla Huhm.
As a teaching artist on the Big Island, Kim has provided arts residencies and workshops in drama, creative movement, puppetry and masks.
With the assistance of the apprenticeship grant, the school arts programs she offers will expand to include Korean dance and music.