Let's Dance in Cheonan! (Festival in Korea)

North Gate of park

 Korean amateur dance team

One~ Two~ Three~ Fighting!!!

 The Cheonan World Dance Festival was celebrated each year with enthusiasm and 

Poland fork dance 

This festival was scheduled to be held this year from October 1^st to October 6^th in Cheonan Samgeori Park, One of thing that I like about this festival was they had a free shuttle buses to festival park form bus terminal and train station every 10-15 minute during festival period which it was really easier to find the place like people who doesn’t familiar with cheonan like me.

Dance battle

Korean traditional snack ( made of gluti-nous rice)

Korean traditional marching band 

Traditional Korean fan dancers

Many foreigner or foreign tourists in Korea would love to visit and enjoy many exciting cultural events or festivals in many local cities where they cannot reach easily out of major cities, so we hope the Cheonan World Dance Festival in next year is more upgraded and provide many new programs for the expat community in Korea.

Cheonan is a city located in the northeast corner of Chung-Nam province and about 1hour form Seoul by car.

Cheonan has been called “the core city of the nation” as it is the gateway to the area around the national capital region as well as the main transportation hub for the national road, railways, and expressways which these routes are open in all directions, including north to Seoul, west to Asan, south to Gwangju and Daejeon, and east to Daegu and Busan.

different cultural fervor. There were dancers from 24 different countries including Turkey, Russia, France, Mexico, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia and other.

The main program of the festival was dance contests of Korean amateur dance teams from all over the place, international Folk Dance Shows, Street parade with international teams, and comic dance battle.

There was sub-stage for other dance performance and competition, the ‘Funny dance battle’. It was a kind of on-stage funny dance battle, as the title describes, that pre-registered or anyone among guest can join as an entry improvisatorially to compete the most funniest and comedy-looking dancers.

The park was big enough that had different area of performances and had various outdoor booths and tends that representing many kinds of local foods like grape and other stuffs to sell. 

I think the best part of festival was the street parade at evening. The  main down town street was blocked to make a huge open stage and spectator area where the parade ends their long march of 2.5 km. but I didn’t’ stay till the end of parade because I had to get on last bus to come home. 

Anyway the festival of year 2013 was wonderful and exciting in general and it has been doing a great role to bridge and connect many different cultures with dance.  But it still has many things to be fixed or reorganized if this annual event is to be evaluated and recognized as a top international dance festival as it claim its title ‘World Dance Festival’ not a local one.  For example there was not enough information provided in multiple languages for foreigners who wants to travel to the city.