As autumn deepens, a mountain village in Sangju, North Gyeongsang province, will be filled with the sound of drums and dance for three days in October. The 2026 Dance Meditation Festival and Gensing, organised jointly by the School of the Body and Village Artists, will take place from National Hangeul Day on 9 October to 11 October at the cultural classroom in Oeseo-myeon, Sangju.
Into the centre instead of fighting: the festival’s central theme
This year’s theme is ‘Jump In The Center’. In its invitation, the organisers likened an era swept by anxiety, lethargy, anger and fear to a typhoon. Their proposal is to leap into its still centre, rather than becoming even more trapped by resisting and fighting. The view that human beings are both the most physical and the most spiritual of creatures runs through the entire programme.
Opening the body: the two-day Dance Meditation Festival
Programme A, the Dance Meditation Festival, begins at 1pm on 9 October and ends at 1pm on 10 October. The first session opens with ‘BURN’, a tightrope performance by circus artist An Jae-hyun. It is followed by a drum circle featuring 100 drums, ‘Dancing Talk’, a nervous-system movement game that loosens the body and connects the mind, and the dynamic meditation ‘9 Waves’.
The second session features ‘Bit-sal-i, Blessing Again’, an object theatre piece based on a legend from Beoreumbaemi village in Sangju. It brings to the stage a ritual of welcome that receives the smallest being back into the embrace of the community. The following morning, the closing performance will combine the Sufi spinning dance meditation ‘Into the Eye of the Storm’ with seungmu and large Korean drum performances.
Gensing workshop explores trauma and family
Programme B, the ‘Gensing Family Constellations Workshop’, runs from 3pm on 10 October, after the festival ends, until 2pm on 11 October. The workshop takes as its guiding question a line from Carl Jung: “If an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate.”
The workshop begins by examining the unconscious and systems through Movement Constellations, followed by three sessions addressing the interplay of somatic perception, trauma and karma. Participants’ own life concerns — from everyday difficulties to family and romantic relationships, illness, work and career choices — provide the material. Places are limited to 20, and applications are open only to festival participants.
The people filling the stage
The programme is led by Kim Yong-ryang, head of the School of the Body and a specialist supervisor in family constellation training. Joining her are Lee Young-yong, West African Baratan music director and chair of the Korean Drum Circle Association; Jeong Gi-bok, a large-drum performer and somatic educator; and Kang Yun-hee, a seungmu performer and TRE provider. Ten members of the School of the Body team and Village Artists team from Sangju will also take to the stage.
The Dance Meditation Festival is a flagship programme that the School of the Body has continued to run. In 2018, it was held in the foothills of Jirisan, presenting a format that brought music, dance and meditation together.
参加 information
Dates: 9–11 October 2026 (Friday–Sunday)
Venue: Cultural Classroom, 55-1 Gagok-ri, Oeseo-myeon, Sangju, North Gyeongsang province
Organised by: The School of the Body, Village Artists
Application form: https://forms.gle/85RPcdNBiD9QodiW7