Fields or Genres : Dance
Location/Platform : Busan, Korea
Hwa Young Ju is an artist and an educator, working as a teaching artist at middle schools. She loves meeting students. She especially wants to provide what they need depending on different developmental stages they’re in by using dance as its means. Since she’s also interested in psychological treatments, she is studying counseling hoping to help students who find difficulty in adapting to society.
As I interact with students through dance, I witness students who used to be timid and have negative self-image turn into a confident person in my classes. Watching their changes gives me strength, and my wishes to help students like them is my driving force.
I think a process of healing is included in arts education. Even after ten years, as a teaching artist, I want to continue to share various experiences of dance with students and teach them how to enjoy and experience dance as culture and arts in a healthy, desirable way.
“A healer with a scarred heart.” Just like scars in my heart, produced from difficulties and hardship in my life, have been healed, I want my life to be able to heal students and give courage and strength to them.
What do colleagues mean to me? Colleagues are people who are having or had similar experiences. So, when life is hard, we can understand one another, laugh about it, listen to each other, exchange advice, uplift each other’s spirit, and offer help.
