Onstage with the folk Sounds of Korea

Alternating instrumental performances with flowing choreography and complex drumming, the 12 members of Sounds of Korea created an astonishing visual and auditory experience Saturday at the Penobscot Stage.

Garbed in traditional Korean dresses of brilliant pink and green, the graceful dancers intertwined in a cascading circular fan dance before spinning apart. Backed by the deep percussive pops and high-pitched plucks on a 12-string zither, the women continually spun and rotated, letting the wind fill their dresses into mushroom shapes.

Masters of crescendos, the co-ed drum circle wove an intricate whirlwind of animal-skin pops and metal-bell pings. Beginning in a slow, synchronized cadence, the mallet strikes eventually sped up and shattered into several driving rhythms where dueling metal hand-gongs left many craning to the edge of their seat to see more.

The performance reached its zenith as four women took up wooden mallets to play three suspended gong-like drums in separate alcoves. Standing side by side and moving with synchronized precision, they arched in limbo fashion to play over their heads, behind their backs and in circles. Breaking loose, the drummers redoubled the thumps and exploded into a frenzied, well-executed thunderstorm of drumbeats.

– Anthony Saucier