Mary Jo Freshley (born September 25, 1934) is an American instructor of

Korean dance Dance in Korea began with shamanistic early rituals five thousand years ago and now ranges from folk dance to newly created and adopted contemporary dance. Overview Korean traditional dance originated in ancient shamanistic rituals thousands o ...

. She teaches at the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...

and the Halla Pai Huhm Dance Studio. Freshley is one of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii's Living Treasures of Hawaii. Even though she is not ethnically Korean, she is one of Hawaii's foremost experts on Korean dance.

Early life

Freshley was born on September 25, 1934, in

Homeworth, Ohio Homeworth is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Knox Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, United States. The population was 492 as of the 2020 census. It is about east of Canton and has a post office with the ZIP code 446 ...

. She earned an undergraduate degree from

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a Public university, public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized progr ...

in 1956, and a master's degree in education after that. She taught physical education in Michigan, and once she moved to Hawaii she also taught at

Kamehameha Schools Kamehameha Schools, formerly called Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate (KSBE), is a private school system in Hawaii established by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, under the terms of the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who was a formal membe ...

Dance

After moving to Hawaii in 1961, Freshley began learning the dances of many cultures, such as Hawaiian, Okinawan, Filipino dance, and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. Freshley began studying

under Halla Pai Huhm in 1962. She began assisting at the Halla Pai Huhm Dance Studio in 1973. Freshley has also studied with Kim Pyong-Sop and Kim Chon-Hung. Freshley took over the studio after Huhm's death in 1994. In the same year, she retired from her teaching position at

, started teaching at the studio full-time, and founded the Halla Huhm Foundation. Much like Halla Huhm, she did not receive a salary from the dance studio, and used funding surpluses to bring guest instructors from Korea. However, Freshley's ethnic heritage as a European-American led to some criticism from the local Korean community, who believe that a Korean should have taken over Huhm's work and studio. She was also excluded from the studio's performance at the 1989

Smithsonian Folklife Festival The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, launched in 1967, is an international exhibition of living cultural heritage presented annually in the summer in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is held on the National Mall for two weeks around the Fo ...

because of her race. She is still active as the director and master teacher of Halla Huhm Korean Dance Studio. Freshley also teaches at the

. In 2018 she was honored as a Living Treasure of Hawaii for her work in preserving Korean culture in Hawaii and for creating the studio's archives.

References

External links

Halla Huhm Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freshley, Mary Jo 1934 births Living people American dance teachers Bowling Green State University alumni Kamehameha Schools Educators from Ohio University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty American Koreanists American women academics

Early life

Dance

See also

References

External links