Namsadang

Namsadang
Pungmul nori, one of the six nori performed by Namsadang.
Korean name
Hangul	남사당
Hanja
Revised Romanization	Namsadang
McCune–Reischauer	Namsatang

The namsadang (Korean pronunciation: [namsʰadaŋ]) is a Korean itinerant troupe which consists of male performers who present various performing arts such as acrobatics, singing, dancing and playing like a circus. It is said that namsadang was spontaneously formed before 1900 during the Joseon Dynasty and used to wander about marketplaces and villages. The troupe was considered the lowest class in society along with cheonmin (vulgar commoners) or baekjeong (butchers), so that very few historical documents remain on them. However, since a record that a puppet show was performed during the Silla period (57 BCE – 935 CE) has been found, it is assumed that similar types of itinerant companies appeared in Korean history a long time ago.

During the late Joseon Dynasty, there were several namsadang, but the one whose base was set in Cheongryongsa temple (청룡사) in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province was the most famous. They became called namsadang because the troupe were composed of only men and "nam" (남, ) means a male in Korean. Later, a few female members were accepted to join in the group though.

The six performances which the troupe performs are collectively called Namsadang nori (남사당놀이), literally meaning nori (놀이) performed by namsadang. Nori refers to play, game or performance in Korean. The namsadang nori includes pungmul nori (풍물, Korean spinning hat dance), beona nori (버나놀이, spinning hoops and dishes), salpan (살판, tumbling), eoreum (어름, tightrope dancing), deotboegi (덧뵈기, mask dance drama), and deolmi (덜미, puppet play). All six nori are associated with each other and integrate various activities such as music, , acrobatics, stunt, play, dance, and mask dance. Originally there were ten performances on Namsadang-nori but only six have been brought down until now.