Taekwondo Takes the Stage
On Sept. 3, the Kukkiwon Taekwondo demonstration team performed on the football field during lunch. The Kukkiwon Taekwondo Demonstration Team is a selection of Taekwondo practitioners who are recognized as the most highly skilled, formed in 1974, that puts on displays of athleticism and precision through Taekwondo. The group consists of about 70 members that are each ranked as fifth degree black belts or higher (Master Choi’s World Class Taekwondo). They have performed in over 100 countries to spread Korean culture, accumulate appreciation as well as interest in Taekwondo and contribute to the tourism industry by planning demonstrations for international tourists in Korea (Kukkiwon World Taekwondo Headquarters). In one instance, the group was invited to teach and train with cadets at Royal Military College (RMC) in Canada after putting on a show for them as a part of a Korean cultural event. The Kukkiwon Taekwondo demonstration team has also made appearances on shows like “The X Factor” and “The World’s Best” on Columbia Broadcasting System, and they have now made their way on campus.
Many students are grateful for this experience, including co-founder of the Sports Time club Cameron Sachar, who attended the presentation with his peers. Sachar found it impressive how much time the performers spent in the air doing kicks and flips.
“It was really cool at the end when they [were] all doing the one-versus-one combat and whole group fight,” Sachar said. “It was definitely worth staying just to see that and it was something straight out of a movie. This event brought the idea of Taekwondo into people’s eyes. It also brought up the idea of how unique [Taekwondo] is as an art and how cool it is as a sport.”
Korean 1, 2, 3, 3 Honors, 4 and 4 Honors teacher June Choi came across the Kukkiwon demonstration team first and proposed to principal Dr. Brent Kuykendall that they make the demonstration a school event. Then, they contacted the facility at which the Kukkiwon demonstration team practices and coordinated the details of the presentation, including when and where it was going to take place. As a Korean teacher, Choi felt it was important to show her students the Kukkiwon Taekwondo performers to inspire appreciation for the cultural martial arts form.
“Taekwondo is all about unity, and they communicate through movement,” Choi said. “It is called a martial art, but it is more than martial arts. Messages that they try to send us through [Taekwondo] are peace, unity and art. Korea is the birthplace of Taekwondo, so it was a great cultural experience. I just wish that we had more time to go over the cultural representation, but because of time constraints, we had to compact everything into 25 minutes.”
As one of the oldest martial arts forms in the world, Taekwondo can be traced back to Korea over 2,000 years ago (Master Chong’s World Class Taekwondo). The World Taekwondo Federation defines Taekwondo as a discipline that shows ways of enhancing both spirit and mind. Thang Phong Martial Arts describes Taekwondo as transcending its Korean translation, “the art of kicking and punching”, by extending this art to all aspects of life in order to achieve a peaceful and harmonious existence. Kuykendall feels that the demonstration was both inspirational and exciting, and he hopes to have other performances for the students and faculty in the future.
“Overall, I think the performance was special,” Kuykendall said. “It was the first time in almost a year and a half that students were able to watch a performance together in our stadium. The performance was impressive, but having our students watch it together and in-person was something this pandemic has shown us that we should not take for granted.”
