Bongcheon Noli Madang and the TV Camera

December 2nd, 2010
In the morning I went to Professor Hilary Finchum-Sung’s class, which was awesome. She finished up her lecture on contemporary Korean (traditional-esque) music (which is where a lot of her current research is focused and then went on to review the second half of the course for the exam. No, I won’t be taking the exam. We had lunch. Guess what, this is amazing, Seoul National University has put in a vegetarian buffet (for all intents and purposes VEGAN buffet) in the student cafeteria in the building next to the school of music. It’s on the second floor. If you’re in Seoul go there. It’s open 11 to 2:30. Only 5,000 and TOTALLY amazing. Finished everything on my plate and didn’t take any more but would have gladly loaded up on almost any of it again (if I’d had room). Since next week is the exam I can’t be sure I’ll see Hilary until next year in March, which is a bummer. I love talking with her, but don’t want to impose myself (more than auditing, that is).

I had class at 봉천놀이마당 Bongcheon Noli Madang in the evening. The KTV cameraman came again, the show will be broadcast on January 7th and will have 7 foreigners all learning some Korean traditional thing on it. So I got there early, but since the cameraman was earlier I couldn’t do much of anything except stretch. Class went really really well, I’m really feeling the flavor of 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae, and what’s more, I really think the movements are somehow more natural and “right” to me than the other mask dance dramas. Not sure why. Just suit my body type and the way I enjoy moving, I guess.

We basically just practiced the same thing (the basic motion set we’re learning) for the whole class, then near the end we learned a little more. I didn’t make an ass out of myself on camera, and I did manage to get through interviewing no problem. During break and after class we had fruit, snacks and tea. Then after we locked up we went out for 뒤풀이 duipuli after-party which I don’t normally do, but I decided that I had to make up for the cameras (several people didn’t come to avoid the camera) and I paid for the food and drinks we had. I really like the Bongcheon group, especially 장미이 Jang Mi’i. She and 선우 Seonu are the same age, both one year younger than me. The rest of the group for the day was 선미 Seonmi (who uses Japanese in her work), 재숙 Jaesuk (who’s husband used to be really active with Bongcheon but maybe not doing mask dance) and 지원 Jiwon (drummer). When I got home I caught heck for having drunk some 막걸리 makgeolli.