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Korean American dances on top of mountain for ferry victims

May 14, 2014
Dancer Uhm Ju-yoon performs on Mount Hood.

Dancer Uhm Ju-yoon performs on Mount Hood.

A Korean American traditional dancer took to the top of Mount Hood in Oregon to memorialize the victims of the ferry sinking.

Uhm Ju-yoon, 49, is a Korean dancer who currently resides in Washington. She climbed the snow-covered mountain, the highest in Oregon, with a Seattle-based alpine club on Sunday.

At 11, 249 feet, she put on a traditional dance performance of “500 Years” and “Arirang” while wearing a blue-and-yellow dress, the colors representing the waves of the ocean and hope for Korea.

“I put on the ‘Yellow Sea,’ a creative dance, at the top of the mountain to console the souls of those young students who didn’t have a chance to fully unfold their youth,” Uhm said. “I also put in my wish that Korea use the Sewol sinking as a chance to reflect on its past mistakes and that it can start with a new mind.”

Uhm, who was a dancer at the closing ceremony of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, used the same outfit she had worn at the Olympics for the first time in 26 years.

She plans to perform a fan dance at the volcano Saint Helena on May 25 and will put on another traditional Korean dance next year at the top of Mount Whitney, the highest summit in the continental U.S. at 4,421 meters.