Bongsan Talchum Performance (in the cold) and Wolduk's Wedding

April 23^rd, 2011

We were supposed to take KTX back to Seoul, but since 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli practice was cancelled, we switched to the much cheaper bus. In the evening all three of us went to 남산한옥골 Namsan Hanokgol which is a completely unpopulated 한옥 hanok (traditional Korean building) village in Seoul accessible from 충무로 Chungmuro Subway Station. We were there for a performance of 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum but we were early enough that we could walk around a bit in the last rays of the setting sun on the picturesque buildings.

Quite a few of the evening class students showed up, or specifically 하연, 정현, and 신마. I sat in the front row with mom and took photos on my long zoom (most of the time) and Karjam stood u p above the entire seating area and took video looking down on us. Most of the audience evaporated during the show because it was beastly cold. The performance however was totally awesome, I am so glad that mom got a chance to see that particular show because they really were just blazing.

First they performed 사상좌춤 sasangjwachum, the dance of the four Buddhist novices. Next was the dance of the eight dark-faced monks, they performed monk 1 which I never get to see (except the other day when I went to see 최창주 Choi Changju's class). Then 2, 3, 4, and 8. Of course at the end all 8 danced together. Next they did the story of 소무 Somu and 노장 Nojang, the old monk. What was special is that they really did the whole thing, starting with carrying Somu onto the stage in the litter. The shoe seller and monkey came on and did their bit and last 취발이 Chuibali came and chased of Nojang so he could take Somu for himself. Finally (of course) they did 사장춤 sajachum, the lion dance. I truly think that the two who did the lion were probably the only comfortable people there (temperature wise).

After the show when I was bowing to everyone 장용일 Jang Yongil told me that they don't care if there is just one person in the audience, they're going to give it their all, but he also thanked us for staying in the freezing temperatures.

Mom and I went to Lazy Sue's and had tea and shared a dessert before heading home.

April 24^th, 2011

Sunday was a really busy day. First we got dressed up and went to 김월덕 Kim Woldeok's wedding to 이주원 Yi Juwon. I had an immediately great impression of him, and I think that Woldeok must have been embarrassed to say that he was handsome, because she had said he wasn't yet he looked quite dashing. We took photos with the bride and then sat down to wait for the wedding, Karjam over on one side near the microphones he'd use to sing a congratulatory song, the two of us on the groom's side (better seats were available for filming Karjam and the wedding). It was a large hotel wedding where you sit at your lunch table to watch the wedding. After the ceremony (Karjam's song went off very well) we had lunch, took the group photos and all that. We also peaked in on the 폐백 pyaebaek traditional ceremony for a few minutes with Bonnie and Curtis.

Mom and Karjam went home, I headed to the 임실필봉농악 서울전수관 Imshil Pilbong Nongak Seoul Training Center where I was about 1.5 hours late to a rehearsal with 개전연 Gaejeonyeon (my 풍물 pungmul club) for our performance next weekend from 1-4. The room was packed with 19 participants all dancing and/ or playing instruments. It seems that there are three of us doing 잡색 japsaek (dancing in costume and playing the part of a specific character). I will be 화동 Hwadong , a male character who wears red robes and a red hat with pheasant feathers. I could have asked to do 소고 sogo but someone has to do japsaek and I enjoy it. It's certainly livelier than the other parts, although not a way to show off skills! In the future when my상모  sangmo is just a little better I hope to do sangmo, of course. Of course 은정/도령 Eunjeong was leading the rehearsal. She'll obviously be the 상쇠 sangsoi (꽹과리 ggwaenggwari lead player) for the performance as well.

I rushed home and then mom and I went to check out 인사동 Insadong although it was getting late and shops were rapidly closing. 

At Korean National University of the Arts with Professor Choi Changju

April 10^th, 2011

Wasted day. More or less.

April 11^th, 2011

I had an amazingly thick research day.

I woke up and got going early, so worried I'd be late to meet 최창주 Choi Changju that I got off the subway by K-Arts almost an entire hour early. Choi is a 전수교육조교 jeonsu gyoyuk jogyo for 봉산탈춤Bongsan Talchum and is also a professor (in the 연희학과 Traditional Theatre Department of the School of the Traditional Arts) who teaches Bongsan Talchum and Korean dance and I gather also some arts marketing type courses, at least from time to time.

This is my second time to interview Choi formally. He'd offered for me to come and watch his class, and told me to meet him in the classroom at 11. It turned out the class started at 10, I guess he just didn't want me to sit through the whole thing, and he knew the first hour would be practicing 서도소리 Seodo Sori (songs in the style of the west coast, which generally means west coast –north- of Seoul in present day North Korea). There is a whole section of Bongsan Talchum with a long (and in my mind very awesome) group singing scene. For the performance in May the students will sing it, of course, as part of the Bongsan Talchum performance. The class included my Wonjung, Gaeun, Heesu and it would have included Inseon except she was sick. 김미애 Kim Miae, an 이수자 isuja was teaching the seodo sori. After Kim finished her section of the class and Choi introduced me to the students they took a break (this was just a few minutes after I arrived). I was able to talk to Gaeun and Heesu a little and learned, for example, that all the students will participate in the Bongsan Talchum singing section as well as several other parts, but that during class the 9 students who are featured in the performance's parts are practiced repeatedly.

Wonjung in the slate gray shirt (Heesu in the tie-dyed pants)

Choi and Kim leading class

This room was huge. I couldn't bounce the flash off the ceiling,  obviously.

Nojang is brought on stage by the 8 monks

They began with the basic motions, which they ran through twice. Choi ordered Wonjung to the center front and frequently throughout performance referred the other students to him. Then I got to watch the rehearsal, which was of Act 2: Dark Face Monks and Act 4: Nojang (Old Monk)'s Dance (except not his part just the part of the 8 other monks) and I was surprised how differently things were done. First of all the daesa monologues were different, including daesa inserted into the middle of the solo dance. Actually most of the same daesa were present, but sometimes longer and often moved around to another monk. Also the solo dances were usually longer. And the Old Monk's act included 4 of the monks grabbing the 4 pungmul instruments and playing, something Choi told the class that the Preservation Association can't do because they just don't have that level of pungmul skills. However all of these differences are present in the version of the script that Choi was using for the performance, a version he says hasn't been performed in a long time. During all of this (most parts were taken multiple times with Choi correcting in various ways) the students like Heesu and Gaeun were just sitting around pretty bored. That's when smart phones are handy. Kim drummed for all of this. I took a few photos.

After class I went to lunch with Choi, Kim and Wonjung at the cafeteria, it was only serving one main dish, thankfully it was a vegetarian option. We said good-bye to Kim then I interviewed Choi in his office (Wonjung went to class). At 3 I followed Choi to his next class, teaching 4^th year dance majors (all women). He was teaching them 사상좌 sasangjwa and the part of the 1^st of the eight monks to them. Which was interesting, as I've never seen that part taught. At any rate, they definitely danced like dance majors (as in, they made it all pretty, which it's not). I had to leave after an hour.

In the evening I went to KOUS for the third of 진옥섭 Jin Okseop's classes. I was in a bad mood from the time it started because someone asked the nice woman who checks attendance to come over and ask me to type my notes quieter. I am sitting on the far right of the theatre. Anyone could sit in the center section or even the left section (Jin even hangs out on the left side of the stage) and not hear a thing. Besides I have been very considerate and closed it every time the theatre is darkened or whatever, the previous week that was all but perhaps 25 minutes, so seriously, you want to complain that someone is taking notes? This despite the people who send text messages with the button noise on (beep beep beep) or even have their phones ring (not on vibrate) during class. This apparently is just fine. Students taking notes in a class, though, is highly disturbing.

In addition the class was lame. Jin showed a lot of really awesome incredibly old video clips I've never seen before (though I had heard of some of them). I would love to have a copy of all of them, and I will ask him later, maybe he'll share. Much of the content was on the mask dance dramas. But he spent the whole class on a series of tangents, where he never had to go into depth about any one subject instead he just made assertions, brought up a random supporting fact (that may not have been supporting if he went into depth). It showed his breadth of knowledge but no depth at all, and frustrated me to no end. I mean, with a scattering of misinterpreted facts –anyone- can appear to be making sense with data and research behind their statements. If that wasn't true, FOX would sound as stupid as it actually is to all the listeners. As it is, only people with more depth of knowledge are able to see exactly how stupid they are. So there I was sitting in the audience wanting to raise my hand and say "wait a second, in my conversations with Professor Choi Changju about Bongsan Talchum history earlier today he said… " or "but if you look at that another way…" or whatever but the format is this total one-way format where Jin is on the stage and we are in the audience, quiet as mice, except for evil things like typing computer keys of course. When class ended I was almost fuming. 

Choreography Rises from Bongsan Talchum

March 31^st. 2011

Worked on the computer. Added a bunch of photos into past entries, feel free to scroll down to see them.

Kim Eunju teaches the relative newcomers 

Kim Eunju drumming

I had 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class and I didn't want to feel like 현석 Hyeonseok was starving through the whole class, so I picked him up a roll of kimbap on the way. Class was pretty ordinary except 박용철 Bak Yongcheol had brought two more people, apparently they were both there on Monday as well. But the two other of his people that I had already met were not there. We did 사상좌 the dance of the novice Buddhist monks for the first time in a million years. Before class started and after it ended Bak Yongcheol worked on choreographing his dance performance (it'll be on the 29^th), he has the music and some ideas of how the choreography will be already. It appears that at least 병호 Byeongho and 정현 Jeonghyeon have committed to being part of the project. When class ended Hyeonseok had to use my phone to contact someone. 

Bongsan and Sangmo Practice

February 21st, 2011
I worked on the computer and then headed to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class in the evening, just barely arriving before 김은주 Kim Eunju, my awesome teacher (who is always a couple minutes late). We had one new student, 나례 Naryae, who was sunny and bright, a perfect addition to our group. 수미 Sumi and 하연 Hayeon were there as well as 정현 Jeonghyeon and 병호 Byeongho and 허세준 Heo Sejun (sp?). There were a total of 10 students, but with four key members absent. We practiced all the monk parts, then proceeded to practice 소무 Somu, then 사상좌 Sasangjwa and finally 사자춤 Sajachum (lion's dance). In other words, we actually have a lot of things we know now. If we can keep a key group of people coming we may actually be ready for a performance in April or thereabouts (since the performance in January fell through).

Class has become increasingly dominated by people who are in the class to either add to their bag of tricks (as actors or some such) or to prepare for school entry. Of the people who are regularly attending now, of those whose employment I know (almost all), only 미행 Mihaeng (who is taking a break this month but text messaging me periodically) is not in the larger field of performance/preparing to be a performer.

February 22nd, 2011
I spent the day on the computer and in the later afternoon headed to the Seoul training center for 임실필봉농악 Imshil Pilbong Nongak to practice 상모 sangmo. We have been meeting at 6, but today there was a class in the space, so we had to wait. I talked to the 교포 gyopo (Korean-American) while waiting. Her name is 이 은 Yi Eun, and she graduated from Northwestern with a degree in music education, but is now spending this entire year in Seoul working on her Korean (she's in Level 4 at Yonsei KLI) and learning 풍물 pungmul. She had previously learned a little, now she's in the intermediate class. She has never studied at Pilbong, however. But I gather she's not been in Seoul for long.

Class was tough. As I get better 이종휘 Yi Jonghui becomes stricter—he more or less constantly corrects me these days, then constantly corrects 현석 Hyeonseok, then looks back at me and corrects me again. He was already pretty strict! Or maybe it's just comparison with 이재정 Yi Jaejeong's style of teaching. At any rate, sangmo is a challenge mostly because you have to coordinate a very large number of different motions which must be properly synchronized. Now that I have to use the 소고 sogo (beating out the rhythm as I step and spin) it is even more complex.
Potential mistakes, all mentioned today:
1. my chin is too low (too close to my chest)
2. when doing a high step, my foot looks like it's kicking rather than just be lifted
3. instead of doing 1.9 spins and then reversing direction, I'm doing 1.7
4. I'm minimizing my knee bends on count 2 and 4, but they need to be the same as the bends on 1 and 3
5. When turning to the side for a two count, I need to turn 90 degrees on 1 and 3, instead I turn 80 degrees on 1 and then 10 degrees on 2 (but funnily 3 and 4 are not a problem)
6. My beat is too early on the sogo
7. My beat is too late
8. I'm doing the move too fast
9. I'm using too much power to turn so I don't look fluid
10. My sogo is pointing down instead of out
11. My sogo stick holding hand is not bent enough at the wrist
12. I'm not timing the very first pre-move correctly
I think I'm probably still forgetting some mistakes I made.

After class I interviewed Jonghui. He started playing when he was in fourth grade, and began sangmo when he was eleven.

Bongsan Talchum Performance

December 17th, 2010
In the morning I went to Severance Hospital –again- and yet by the evening my ear was almost as painful as it’s been at any time during this whole long annoying infection. And the new pills he’s trying on me cost way too much- 70 bucks or so- if Karjam hadn’t insisted I wouldn’t have picked them up.

In the evening I went to 무형문화재선수회관의 풍류극장 the Pungryu Geukjang (theatre) at the Training Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage to see a performance of 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum with 양은석 Yang Eunseok and two of his co-workers. Eunseok is a friend from summer 2009 at 임실필봉농악전수관 Imshil Pilbong Nongak Training Center. He’s amazingly talented, both as a drummer and notably as a singer of 민요 minyo. If only he would stop smoking! As usual the advertising materials existed for the performance but they’d done a horrible job of getting the word out. I didn’t even know about the performance until Monday, even though I’m in the building week after week. On the evening of the performance there were posters (even free ones for the guests) and bookmark-like cards to advertise the show around the building, but considering that the foot traffic is not the highest, such advertising materials need to go out in advance, as far in advance as possible (in my opinion). More directed advertising can focus on a few days before but passive advertising such as distributing cards needs to be out there so attendees at other shows can pick them up weeks in advance.

The performance began with an introduction by 박상운 Bak Sang-un and two musical performances- 대금산조 Daegeum Sanjo followed by a 해금 독주 Solo Haegeum piece. Both were performed by younger members of the group. The performance was 사상좌춤 Sa-sangjwa dance, 발목중춤 the scene of the 8 dark-faced monks (with solos by the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th monk), 노장춤 the Old Monk’s dance and 사자춤 the lion dance. I video-taped the two middle pieces, since I don’t think I have the Old Monk’s dance and I’ve ruined previous performance videotapes of the dark-faced monks by being too excited about the performance and speaking the 대사 daesa monologues with the monks loud enough for the camera to pick up the sound. Either Bak Sang-un or in one case the National Human Treasure 김애선 Kim Aeseon spoke between acts, and their announcing was very rich—I will have to transcribe it (or get it transcribed) for future analysis- very rich indeed.

Friday morning dawned snowy. This is the view down our break-neck (esp. when icy) hill from our stairs. Karjam shows off his facial hair. I show off the clean hair on my head (if only I didn't get more water in my ear...)

New Tibetan Videos on Youtube for your Viewing Pleasure!

October 27th, 2010
As I still feel fairly weak, so fortunately I didn’t have to leave the house except for a short trip to the bakery (Wing!) and the nearest market. I worked on my presentation for the EPIK (English Program in Korea) orientation on Exploring Korea, uploaded three of Karjam’s songs to Youtube (Nighttime in Lhasa, Tserjih Tsomo and A Nomad Boy from Amdo, all recorded 9/25 in Andong, the 9/30 performance videos will get uploaded eventually). Please visit the videos and comment on them (pretty please).

경진 Kyungjin came for dinner, I made lots of veggie side dishes including really awesome mushrooms and super duper soup.

October 28th, 2010
In the morning I woke up early and traveled across town to present to the EPIK teachers. The presentation went fine, except the group was so varied, it was hard to hit the right note (some people have been in Korea a few years, most 4 months then about 30% of them arrived a week ago, so how do you talk about exploring Korea?). At any rate there was something new in my info for everyone, of that I am certain.

Came home and Karjam and I went to 경희대 Kyunghee University to see Desang, Iwan and Koong who were attending a function there.

After that I headed to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class. Today class was taught by 장용일 Jang Yongil again. It’s awesome when he teaches, but I was walking to class promising Georgy that I would take it easy, maybe just sit and watch. But I can’t do that when Jang is teaching! I had to go full out (and both knees killed, plus I felt pretty sick, so worn out Karjam came to meet me at the bus stop and walk me home). He didn’t talk a lot today and ended class 15 minutes early, but he did teach us really steadily. We worked particularly on 5먹중 (the fifth dark faced monk’s solo) and on 사상좌춤 (the dance of the four Sangjwa), but I mostly avoided his eagle eye when I screwed up. He also agreed to drive me to 양주 Yangju after the performance on Saturday (awesome!) and promised to teach us all the 사자춤 (lion dance) on Monday, when he’ll be teaching us again. The lion dance is usually for men, but I’m dying to try it. He also worked with us on our 대사 daesa and our entrances. He insists we need to know the daesa for the fourth monk by Monday. We had two extra people today, Jang’s students who he brought along. One of them is learning to drum to accompany mask dancing, today Jang would often start drumming with the other guy shadowing him then Jang would stop and the other guy would continue to drum on his own. Sometimes he just instructed him from the start without demonstrating, and he was constantly turning to him and saying “it speeds up at the end of this rhythmic cycle” and such. He made a few mistakes and went too fast a few times, but overall he did pretty well.