Rich Traditions of the Mass Gymnastics in Korea

Held at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang of the DPRK between September and November last year was the grand mass gymnastics and artistic performance The Glorious Country, attracting a lot of visitors at home and abroad.

After Korea’s liberation from Japanese military occupation mass gymnastics was encouraged as a powerful means for the youth and schoolchildren and the rest of the people to train their bodies, and was very popular in Pyongyang and other provinces, cities, counties and educational institutions across the country.

In September 1961 the grand mass gymnastics The Era of the Workers’ Party was held in Pyongyang in celebration of the Fourth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea. The performance that portrayed in gymnastic and artistic images brilliant successes achieved by the Korean people in the socialist revolution and construction was excellent in content and standard of representation. It also boldly broke with the previous formalities and introduced new methods of creation, which opened a new chapter in the history of mass gymnastics in the DPRK.

Since then, it developed as a composite sport which ensures a high standard of athletic finesse and artistic skills by employing diverse means of athletic representation, background art, band music, pangchang (off-stage chorus), rhythmic dance and other artistic means.

The establishment of the Korean Mass Gymnastics Production Company in November 1971, involving talented experts in gymnastics, fine art, music and other fields, gave powerful impetus to its progress.

During the last century the company produced such People’s Prize-winning works as Song of Korea, Under the Banner of the Party and The People Sing of Their Leader.

It also helped many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America develop mass gymnastics.

Entering the new millennium, it rendered a great contribution to creating the Kim Il Sung Prize-winning grand mass gymnastics and artistic performances Ever-Victorious Workers’ Party of Korea and Arirang. Through the creation of the grand mass gymnastics and artistic performance The Glorious Country, the company demonstrated remarkable abilities of its competent and seasoned creators.

Choe Suk Myong, Kim Il Sung Prize-winner and People’s Athlete, with a career of nearly 50 years as a production director, and department heads Song Song Chan, Mun Jong Nam and Ri Hui Song made energetic efforts to open up a new world of creation in the branches of background art, athletic representation, music and so on.

Their efforts reached brilliant fruition, and the world media and people lavished praise on the performance as the world’s masterpiece No. 1 that can only be seen in the DPRK. Brilliant history of mass gymnastics development in the DPRK continues thanks to enthusiastic creators rushing forward toward a higher goal.

Creators of mass gymnastics