Little Dancer Kim Jin Ok

Last April there was held the “wonder children’s performance” in Beijing, China, to show the world child prodigies’ talents. The children of three to fifteen from many countries demonstrated their surprising talents in the show.

Among them was Kim Jin Ok, 11, from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, who aroused a great applause from dance experts, judges and the audience by dancing folk dances Water Jar Dance and Janggu Dance, making a great sensation. The organizers allocated ten minutes to every child, but half an hour to Jin Ok. Why? How could she break the custom?

To know the truth, I visited the Pyongyang Students and Children’s Palace. Kim Hye Gyong, 47, the dance instructor who trained Jin Ok told me a story.

It happened when Hye Gyong, passing by the playground of a kindergarten, discovered a pretty girl, long-necked and more rhythmical than others. They were taking outdoor exercise to the accordion of their teacher. So Hye Gyong went up to her and asked, “Do you want to dance?” “Yes, I do,” she answered. Hye Gyong asked her to do some movements, and realized that the pretty girl was a born dancer. Thus Jin Ok became a member of the dance circle of the palace while entering Ryonhwa Primary School.

       

Looking back upon the days when she learned the ABC of dance in the palace, Jin Ok said, “At first I was very tired and everything was difficult for me. After training, I felt pains in my legs, so my elder brother often carried me on his back. Sometimes I felt so tired that I wept, but I still wanted to dance.”

As she had already learned kayagum (a Korean traditional musical instrument), she was very sensitive to music and quick in her movement. That was why she fully understood what she learned and perfectly completed difficult moves. She made remarkable progress by the day. She danced a solo dance in the lunar New Year’s Day performance of schoolchildren in 2009, only two years after she learned dancing, took part in performances in foreign countries as a member of the students and children’s art troupe, and won the special award and diploma at the 4th students and children’s individual art contest. In addition, she was loudly applauded by the audience at the schoolchildren’s lunar New Year’s Day performance held in 2011 by dancing the solo dance Janggu Dance.

Dance brought about a great change in her life. Since she learned dancing, her figure became more graceful. She liked to be among her friends and became cheerful. She also got a habit of observing her surroundings carefully.

Teachers say in unison that assiduousness is her special feature. Comparing herself with her seniors, she tries to make every effort to wonderfully perform traditional dance moves, with a resolution to dance as well as them. Her strenuous efforts backed by her special aptitude and talent bore fruit.

    

After seeing her dance, the headmaster of the art school of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army said: “Kim Jin Ok is a little world-class dancer surprising everybody. As a dance expert, I am also struck with great admiration by her natural talent. In particular, the move of spinning in a circle while drumming the janggu is the most difficult one even for the experts, and deserves to be recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. A dance fairy like Jin Ok is inconceivable apart from the great concern of Kim Jong Il, maestro of the arts, and his noble view of coming generations.”

Her parents say, “When Jin Ok participated in the ‘wonder children’s performance’ in Beijing, the foreigners asked her, ‘Have you ever been taught by tutors?’ On hearing her answer that she was taught by the dance instructor of the Pyongyang Students and Children’s Palace, they told her in admiration, ‘You are really a born dancer.’ But her natural talent is not the only reason. But for the state’s scientific, early education system to find out and train talented children in time, our daughter Jin Ok would not have been famous like today.”

She is now the target of envy and competition to other dancers. Not content with her success, she trains harder to be a better dancer who will master the Korean folk dance. People are expecting much from her.  

Rim Ok, "Korea Today"  No. 665, November 2011