February 16th, 2011
Worked on the computer all day.
February 17th, 2011
Today was 대보름 Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar new year. In the morning I tried to get stuff done on the computer as I have a couple deadlines next week, but I left my house a bit before 2 and headed to 서울놀이마당 for the Daeboreum Festival. When I arrived we were preparing long sticks by wrapping them in tape. Then balls of fabric (later to be soaked in fuel and used as torches) were attached to the end. We had made the balls the previous Saturday. I was rather stressed not about my own performance (as one of the 등롱 deungnong lantern carriers) in the performance of 송파다리밟기 Songpa Dari Balpgi, but because the four KNUA students who I had roped into participating really weren't being given the information they needed to participate to their best and I felt like we were looking unprofessional in front of them as a result. I want them (희수 Heesu came today, too, in addition to 재윤 Jaeyun, 정우 Jeong-u and 장호 Jangho the guy I did not previously know) to think of the Songpa folks as professionals or at least serious about what they're doing, but I am afraid they didn't appear that way.
We had an early dinner (or late lunch?) at a restaurant we often go to and then went back to preparing (I got into my 민복 minbok and continued to try to rope 탄종원 Tahn Jongwon, the only one I could trust to remember and explain clearly, into telling the boys how to do the performance). Eventually we did have the tiniest bit of rehearsal (3 minutes?) before we had to go and distribute peanuts and drinks to the assembled audience as the 풍물 pungmul performance was going on. Actually considering that it was an outdoor nighttime performance in February and about freezing, it was a great turn out. After a 민요 minyo performance we did Songpa Dari Balpgi. At first everyone was cold and stiff and not in sync with each other, however as the performance went on things loosened up and straightened out. I ended up having a lot of fun with only one small error. As we ended the performance morphed into the torch lit parade along the banks of the lake with the pungmul group dominating the soundscape. I sprinted to the practice room, dropped my lantern and grabbed my camera. After our march we ended up at the 달집 daljip (house of the moon), a branches and bamboo wrapped up with thousands of wishes for the new year (the wishes had been collected at Songpa Noli Madang for over a week). My wish was in there, of course. After more pungmul and speeches by the local government official (the head of Songpa District) the bonfire was lit and we continued to dance around it until it was burned down to the ground and the pungmul players were exhausted.
One thing about the pungmul team- the leader of the team (the 상쇠 sangsoi or lead 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari player), who also chanted the ceremonial wish-chant during the speeches and 고사 gosa ceremony- turned out to be my friend 박연식 Bak Yeonshik from my 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class. The world of Korean traditional performing arts really is quite small.
After everything was finished I was still, for lack of a better term, high on the communal release of energy. There is not much I like more than dancing to ecstatic drum music by a bonfire under a full moon. I hung around hoping something good would happen, eventually 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk, 이수환 Yi Suhwan, 서병무 Seo Byeongmu, Tahn Jongwon and I went out for a late dinner and some more drinks. With the exception of Seo Byeongmu those are just about my favorite people from Songpa Sandae Noli, so I was happy, but then after only about one drink Seo turned into an argumentative nonsensical annoying drunk. Actually he's always an annoying drunk, but I hadn't realized he'd already been drinking so he only needed a bit more to tip him over into unacceptable.
Showing posts with label 고사. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 고사. Show all posts
Friday, February 18, 2011
Monday, October 11, 2010
Songpa Sandae Noli Annual Full Length Performance
October 10th, 2010
Each of the Korean mask dance dramas and every other government protected performed art (not the craft arts) has to have one official full-length performance per year. In the cases of some performances they frequently perform the whole thing—because some full-length performances are still less than half an hour long, almost any performance can be full-length. For others like the 판소리 pansori epics, their full length performance is six to eight hours long (of a SINGLE singer accompanied by one drummer), so the full length performance is a big deal. When 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli did a full length performance in 2006 and I participated we had an introduction for each act (in both Korean and English) and it took over four hours. This year they tried to avoid having it drag on too long and the only introduction was by the guy who normally introduces performances at the Seoul Noli Madang, who is not a specialist in Songpa Sandae Noli, his introduction was exceedingly ordinary and less than a minute in length, and only at the very start.
I had some tasks backstage, but mostly I was able to do my own thing. Before anything started Karjam and I recorded an intro for the One Day on Earth project (because this being 10.10.10 it was the day of One Day on Earth, please see this link to know more), and I ran around setting out surveys. This time I was trying to do entirely scientific sampling, and I left it up to chance who would pick one up and there was no announcement or appeal that they fill out the surveys. At the top of the survey it specified who I was and what I was doing in just two short lines, but there were no pens provided. At the end I received only 11, which is apparently about normal in this type of surveying. I had set out 200 surveys and there were around 300 people that showed up for the performance although many only stayed a short time. The vast majority of the audience members were presumably from neighboring buildings and most were over 70 years old. I’m not even sure that it’s useful to have so few surveys returned and suspect most were from the wives of the performers. I’m so bummed about the low return I haven’t even read them yet.
After setting out surveys I helped a little in setting up for the 고사 gosa ceremony that begins the ceremony. 이수환 Yi Suhwan, who is insisting that these days I should call him oppa or older brother, showed me the two new masks he made. During the twelve acts of the performance I kept running in and out. I took photos from the audience, dropped off water for the musicians, and distributed 떡 ddeok (a sort of traditional Korean cake made from pressed cooked rice, in this case with black beans) to the audience. This was the worst part of the day, we didn’t have enough ddeok and people got really weird/crazy, grabbing and me and the box as I tried to give it out. The idea was that people could share it with the person next to them but people didn’t want to, they wanted to grab one for each person (each piece was really large) and devil-take-the-hindmost. The hindmost were people who were more polite and those too old to fight for “their share.” Anyway, it was really stressful, even though we all tried to move super fast and get it into the hands of the oldest audience members first (remember the audience was really elderly). I took backstage photos, carried messages from person to person, fetched the programs with English in them when a group of foreigners showed up, helped with setting out items and dressing to some small degree and basically tried to be helpful and document the proceedings. Afterwards I helped clean up, collected my surveys and talked with 함완식 Ham Wanshik.
My friend Eugene’s wedding began at 5 on the other side of town, rushing so fast I fell down and skinned my knee and bruised myself, we managed to arrived a few minutes after 7 (weddings in Korea don’t even normally take that long). We watched the tail end of the traditional 폐백 paebaek ceremony (mostly just the corny posed photo part) and introduced respective spouses to each other. Eugene’s new wife floored me with her good energy, warm grip and super sweet smile. I imagine she must be super special to end up with a smartie like Eugene.
Each of the Korean mask dance dramas and every other government protected performed art (not the craft arts) has to have one official full-length performance per year. In the cases of some performances they frequently perform the whole thing—because some full-length performances are still less than half an hour long, almost any performance can be full-length. For others like the 판소리 pansori epics, their full length performance is six to eight hours long (of a SINGLE singer accompanied by one drummer), so the full length performance is a big deal. When 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli did a full length performance in 2006 and I participated we had an introduction for each act (in both Korean and English) and it took over four hours. This year they tried to avoid having it drag on too long and the only introduction was by the guy who normally introduces performances at the Seoul Noli Madang, who is not a specialist in Songpa Sandae Noli, his introduction was exceedingly ordinary and less than a minute in length, and only at the very start.
I had some tasks backstage, but mostly I was able to do my own thing. Before anything started Karjam and I recorded an intro for the One Day on Earth project (because this being 10.10.10 it was the day of One Day on Earth, please see this link to know more), and I ran around setting out surveys. This time I was trying to do entirely scientific sampling, and I left it up to chance who would pick one up and there was no announcement or appeal that they fill out the surveys. At the top of the survey it specified who I was and what I was doing in just two short lines, but there were no pens provided. At the end I received only 11, which is apparently about normal in this type of surveying. I had set out 200 surveys and there were around 300 people that showed up for the performance although many only stayed a short time. The vast majority of the audience members were presumably from neighboring buildings and most were over 70 years old. I’m not even sure that it’s useful to have so few surveys returned and suspect most were from the wives of the performers. I’m so bummed about the low return I haven’t even read them yet.
After setting out surveys I helped a little in setting up for the 고사 gosa ceremony that begins the ceremony. 이수환 Yi Suhwan, who is insisting that these days I should call him oppa or older brother, showed me the two new masks he made. During the twelve acts of the performance I kept running in and out. I took photos from the audience, dropped off water for the musicians, and distributed 떡 ddeok (a sort of traditional Korean cake made from pressed cooked rice, in this case with black beans) to the audience. This was the worst part of the day, we didn’t have enough ddeok and people got really weird/crazy, grabbing and me and the box as I tried to give it out. The idea was that people could share it with the person next to them but people didn’t want to, they wanted to grab one for each person (each piece was really large) and devil-take-the-hindmost. The hindmost were people who were more polite and those too old to fight for “their share.” Anyway, it was really stressful, even though we all tried to move super fast and get it into the hands of the oldest audience members first (remember the audience was really elderly). I took backstage photos, carried messages from person to person, fetched the programs with English in them when a group of foreigners showed up, helped with setting out items and dressing to some small degree and basically tried to be helpful and document the proceedings. Afterwards I helped clean up, collected my surveys and talked with 함완식 Ham Wanshik.
My friend Eugene’s wedding began at 5 on the other side of town, rushing so fast I fell down and skinned my knee and bruised myself, we managed to arrived a few minutes after 7 (weddings in Korea don’t even normally take that long). We watched the tail end of the traditional 폐백 paebaek ceremony (mostly just the corny posed photo part) and introduced respective spouses to each other. Eugene’s new wife floored me with her good energy, warm grip and super sweet smile. I imagine she must be super special to end up with a smartie like Eugene.
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