Two Cultures Come Together in Dance and Song
Contact:
Kelly C. Martini, communications director/information officer,
United Methodist Women's Division
Press Room: 714-765-2098; Cell Phone: 610-996-2124; Office Phone: 212-870-3729
Two Cultures Come Together in Dance and Song
NEW YORK, NY, April 24, 2006) -- Two cultures with strong historical roots in ministry and music will come together on May 6 at 8:00 p.m., at the Anaheim, Calif., Convention Center.
Ewha High School Alumni Choir, comprised of alumni from a Methodist-affiliated girls' high school in Seoul, Korea, and the Clark Atlanta University Steppers from Atlanta, who gained international attention at the Atlanta Olympic Games, will perform at the United Methodist Women's Assembly.
Ewha alumni choir members will travel to Anaheim from around the U.S. to present traditional Korean songs. The Clark Atlanta University steppers will perform a drill team-style dance called stepping, which combines the agility of cheerleading with the stomping rhythms of clogging in what has become an African-American tradition.
Both educational institutions were started more than 100 years ago by predecessor groups of the one-million member United Methodist Women, and are still supported in part by the organization.
Mary F. Scranton of Ohio, an American missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, founded Ewha High School, a school for Korean young women in 1886. Scranton began educating young women in a house in Seoul, and added new classes each year until all grade levels were covered.
"Her vision was to proclaim God's truth and justice, especially regarding Korean women who were discriminated against by men in Korean society," according to Ewha's history. "Mrs. Scranton's first-year class consisted of a single student who was taught Korean, English, and the Bible."
Ewha High School became a university in 1945 and is now the largest women's university in the world.
Founded in the 1860s as two separate universities, Clark Atlanta University was founded by the American Missionary Association and the Freedman's Bureau of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The university prepared black teachers and librarians throughout the segregated South for employment in the public schools. Today, the university provides undergraduate education to a predominantly African-American population.
###
