Seventh Presentation of Cheon Il Guk Art Scholarships

Julia (Hoon Sook) Moon June 29, 2014 Artistic Director of the Universal Ballet Company Azalea Hall of the North Topia Building, Tokyo, Japan

Whenever I meet Japanese members, my mind is filled with only gratitude and respect for them. Today, I was again greatly moved by the dances and songs presented by our young students. Yesterday, after arriving, I visited Hikarino Koen Kindergarten [roughly, “kindergarten of light”] and had the opportunity to see your younger second- and third- generation brothers and sisters sing the Cheon Il Guk anthem and the “Three Bears Song” [곰세마리] in Korean with such bright smiles. I sincerely thank our Heavenly Parent and True Parents for allowing me to be able to see our children, who are very talented and possess rich sensitivity, today. I would also like to convey my deep gratitude to the Japanese headquarters and the members involved for creating an environment through which our young children could grow within True Parents’ culture of heart.

According to True Parents, the purpose of culture and the arts is to bring joy to God and fellowmen and to express truth, beauty and goodness, which comes from God. Their performances today did exactly this. I felt transported to another world through their art. Just as Julia Moon speaking at the event the Divine Principle mentions, who is the best artist? It’s God, our Heavenly Parent. Whenever I faced difficulties as I followed this path of art, I obtained much strength by looking at nature. God’s creation never stops amazing me whenever I look at it. The creation, which God made for his loving sons and daughters, is just truly beautiful. The beautiful sunset, the endless sea, the huge mountains, etc. just take your breath away.

Adults connected with the Japanese movement, Hoon Sook Nim and the student recipients of the Cheon Il Guk Arts Scholarship at the conclusion of the ceremony

Recently, True Mother visited the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately, global warming, a product of our fallen nature, is causing the glaciers and snow to melt. True Mother was greatly saddened and concerned about it. One of her main concerns was the decreasing amount of land that will result from the thawing of the ice while population keeps increasing. Her concern was, “Where will our children live in the future?” According to True Mother, if we had created a better foundation for True Father, we could have prevented such a thing from happening. True Mother asked, “What can we do in light of this problem?” What we can do to save the world, humanity and creation is to help many people know of True Parents.

In 1990, Father founded the Kirov Academy of Ballet and in his inauguration speech, he said that ballet is truly a heavenly art form because dancers go on their toes, jump up and reach for the sky; in this way, it is

an expression of man’s desire to reach God. On that day, True Father wrote the calligraphic message, 에천미지, which means creating a beautiful world through heavenly art. This has been the purpose of Universal Ballet for the last thirty years. Last February, we had a gala performance, celebrating our thirtieth anniversary. A Korean critic wrote about our performance after watching it. I will read part of it to you.

“For thirty years, through the Seoul Arts Center Opera Theater, ballet pieces have been presented to us by the Universal Ballet Company, which possesses a repertoire with many performable pieces, one that the National Ballet Company has not been able to establish. What we must take note of is that the Universal Ballet Company has now made it possible to not only turn aspects of the Korean wave into ballet, but also classic Korean literature such as the stories of Shimcheong and Chun-hyang [famous Korean fairytales].

“Even though it was regarded as a means to expand the influence of a particular religion, regarding the artistic path that the Universal Ballet Company followed for the past thirty years, or the consistent individual activities of Julia Moon, its director, I believe it is high time that we remove such labeling from the history of Korean ballet. No religious group or social group has contributed to cultural arts as much as has the Universal Ballet Company, nor can Laima Inoue, a student who had also we talk of the development of Korean ballet without received an arts scholarship in the past, the Universal Ballet Company. performing ballet as a guest “The special gala, which is presented by the Universal Ballet Company to thank its audience, reflects its thirty-year history; it is a monument that represents the beauty created by Universal Ballet Company over thirty years; it reflects the development of Korean Ballet history and is an artistic masterpiece in itself.”

I was quite surprised when I saw this article. It took thirty years for such an opinion to be formed. Hence, if we keep on dedicating ourselves centered on our Heavenly Parent and True Parents, develop our skills and seek for only the best, the world’s people will one day acknowledge our efforts. I believe this is natural submission. This is why I wanted to share this with you all. The Universal Ballet Company held performances in Japan every year in its early days. Thanks to those performances, the ballet company could develop. Even though we were not good, you still gave us big rounds of applause and waited for us to grow.

In just the same way you waited for our ballet company to grow, time is needed in raising artists. Since artists pass through a growing period, please have faith in these young children and wait for them to grow. If you do so, I believe they will grow into great artists. In April, our ballet troupe presented a new ballet piece. The Sewol [ferry sinking] incident arose just around that time. All other performances in Korea were cancelled as a result. We didn’t cancel ours since a world-renowned choreographer had helped us create this new piece and was present. During a press interview, a journalist asked the choreographer the following question, “Please say something to the people of Korea who are in much pain now.” The choreographer replied, “Dance and music have a soul with the power to heal. I hope that the people of Korea can find at least Elementary school students from the Tokyo area singing some comfort during this performance.” together as part of the Seonhak Chorus Someone who watched it tweeted about the performance, “I could somehow detach myself from the pain of the Sewol incident through this dance for a short time and was greatly comforted.”

Among our audience, we have Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and people with no religion. Hence, we cannot deny that cultural arts transcends all national, racial and religious walls and has the power to heal the hearts of people and the power to bring together all people as one family.

Twenty years ago, True Father said that all people must learn Korean. When I heard this, I thought, “Would such a day truly come?” Today, people worldwide are learning Korean because of K-pop and Korean dramas. I never imagined that True Father’s words would come true through the culture and arts. Culture and arts has great power, power that can move the world.

We must also build a new Cheon Il Guk culture centered on God’s will. We should create a “Cheon wave” based on Cheon Il Guk instead of a “Han wave [“Han” is “Korea” in Korean].” As you know I have spent my whole life in the arts, and being an artist is very challenging. I wanted many, many times to stop and give up. Now I am very grateful and happy that I endured because the arts has filled and enriched my life and has given me the opportunity to indirectly witness to and give True Parents’ love to society through the world of the arts. Dream big and aim high. I hope and pray that you make the world a more beautiful and better place through your talents.