Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Another Foreigner at Bongsan Talchum

September 6th, 2010
In the morning we woke up early and headed to the Immigration Center, but they really can’t help me. Oh well. Then Karjam and I headed to 이대 Ewha Womans [sic] University to help him memorize his route to class.

I had 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum in the evening. Surprisingly another foreigner, a French-speaking Canadian attending a theatre program in France, showed up. I am not sure yet the implications this will have for my research and whether that site will be non-standard until he leaves or what. He’ll only be here in September, apparently. He’s preparing to actually do a performance incorporating Bongsan Talchum in France. I think this is rather cocky of him since he’s a rank beginner and Korean folk dance movement aesthetics might seem deceptively simple, but they take a bit of time to adapt to. He also gave an introductory address to the class that I didn’t sit right with me—a lot of “take” from Korea and “use” for himself. He speaks no Korean and consequently his presence was a major interruption to normal class, the instructor spent twice as much time teaching the rank beginners as she normally would since he had to get everything translated to him (which made it impossible to just pick up the clues 김은주 Kim Eunju was giving him as she instructed).

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