Cheonha Jeil Tal Performance

June 10^th, 2011

Today Karjam had his very important day of adding percussion tracks to the CD. 고석진 Go Seokjin, a talented traditional drummer and dancer agreed to take on the task of creating most of the percussion tracks for the CD.  He was, unfortunately, returning from Jeju Island where he'd been performing, and he ended up taking a taxi with only some of his instruments—the recording didn't get finished, in other words. The final decision was that he would add percussion to 7 of the 11 tracks, but they only got through four. Or mostly through four, as there may be a little of some other percussion instruments added next Friday when they finish the recording. The remaining three tracks are the three traditional tracks, mostly those will be a cappella with just a little bit of an intro.

I had to leave before they'd finished up to get to see 천하제일탈 Cheonha Jeil Tal's first piece, which I had not seen before. The piece was very very good.

First 손병만 Son Byeongman performed monk 1's dance, followed by monk 2's monologue and then monk 3's dance, moving into 합동 circling and then he left the stage. Next 허창열 Heo Changyeol performed 문둥북춤 Mundung Bukchum, brilliantly and perhaps just a bit longer than normal, it seemed that there was some extra 소고춤 sogochum at the end but I could be wrong. Finally 이주원 Yi Juwon entered from the back of the audience as 이매 Imae from 하회별신굿탈놀이 Hahoi Byeolshin'gut Talnoli. He did indeed pull an older Korean woman and then a foreign man from the audience, adding the extra moment of amusement when the woman could not be enticed to speak in English to the foreigner and Juwon had to suddenly out of character explain.

           

Next the players donned new masks and acted out a play with two parts, the second humorously about plastic surgery (and its popularity in Korea). I found this second section to be ineffective as it was extremely reliant on dialogue for long stretches, and while it had acting it didn't have much of any dance.

After the show I had dinner with the players and musicians, who were all getting ready to leave for Namwon, where they'd be performing on Saturday.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

May 20^th, 2011

I finally interviewed 이동현 Yi Donghyeon who manages the ongoing performances at Pungryu Theatre. It was a good interview, he didn't have much time but he answered questions very directly. Very useful information about how the theatre books, advertises and runs their shows.

In the evening I headed to 서강대 Sogang University for the 상모/사물놀이 sangmo/samulnori class. It was really awesome because 이종휘 Yi Jonghui my super excellent teacher allowed me to go straight into sangmo practice and keep concentrating on that all night. He also taught me this short snippet of 소고춤 sogochum. The idea is that with a proper sangmo routine and a short bit of sogochum I could actually do my own little show (5 minutes? 7 minutes?) after I get back to UCLA. While I did sangmo the rest of the class played samulnori (they actually got out all the instruments) and then in the last hour (we did 2.5 hours of class) I was joined by two others on sangmo.

May 21^st, 2011

Did a ton of really good writing and went to see "Source Code" with Karjam.

May 22^nd, 2011

Not that exciting of a day, sat with my best Korean male friend, 허창열 Heo Changyeol, who is totally one of the only people I can talk to honestly about my research and had a great talk. It could have been a little more thought-provoking if he'd disagreed with what I was saying or had a really different viewpoint, but mostly today I was saying stuff and he was making notes and agreeing. Even if I didn't get any huge new insights, I was able to confirm some ideas that I wanted to run past him and talk research.

Songpa Sandae Noli Prepares to Perform

May 13^th, 2011

I started the day with a list of about 7 items I wanted to take care of, but somehow it seemed that only two got taken care of because new tasks seemed to materialize like slugs after a nice rainfall. Everything I had to do seemed to take longer than it should have, too.

In the evening I had the second week of my new 사물놀이/상모 samulnori and sangmo class. I introduced my German friend Jan to the class, too. His first time to ever hold drums sticks, but he seemed to do fairly well. We did the drumming first, then for the last hour those of us who wanted to do sangmo (효진, 정환 and next week 선호 and this other woman who went to high school with 이종휘 are going to bring their sangmo, too). I managed to get both my 일사 motion and this other motion (the name of which is temporarily escaping me) up to a much more acceptable level. I now do 일사 with the 소고 sogo which is the difficult part of it for me. After class they all went to have a drink, of course I couldn't because of Karjam.

May 14^th, 2011

Because the 송파산대놀이 전기공연 Songpa Sandae Noli Annual full length performance (the 38^th year of full length performances, the 46^th full length performance held during that time) is Sunday, Saturday was devoted to a full length rehearsal.  

At 서울놀이마당 Seoul Noli Madang we quickly moved outside to the madang itself to practice. Mats were set out for the musicians to sit on and we began from the first act: 상좌춤놀이 Sangjwachum Noli. Professor 이병옥 Yi Byeongok performed the first sangjwa part as people walking by were attracted by the music and sat down to watch the rehearsal. During the second act, Omjung, Meokjung Noli there were a couple moments where 함완식 and 안병인 took some movements over, but for the most part the acts continued exactly as they would be performed except for the fact that there were no costumes or masks. Some people were wearing 민복 minbok but not everyone- the musicians and few dancers were just wearing street clothes. I found it interesting that 이수환 continually took photographs during this rehearsal and no one told him to stop. I am sometimes forbidden from taking photos during rehearsals, and I am generally aware that I am not supposed to use any of them without permission. When I have brought other foreigners (including my mom) to the training center then 함완식 has strongly forbidden them (he would have less control over their photos than mine) from taking any at all.

As 함완식 speaks his lines, without the microphones of course, he seems to be using the force of his entire body to project the dialogue. I found watching Act 3 연닢눈끔재기놀이, which I have been concentrating on learning the most in class the most fun of all. Watching the entire expert cast do the scene was so different than before I had almost memorized the dialogue for the act. Audience members continued to come and go as we practiced with some people, especially those who were a little more elderly staying for long periods of time.

The "audience" of performers spends time discussing and gossiping with each other, says the lines quietly to themselves (especially the funny ones, the 불림 bullim and the short songs) at the same time as the performers, or rehearses lines they will need to speak in a few minutes when it is their turn to go on stage.

In the evening I went to the train station and met my good friend Kim who is having a flying visit to Korea. We had a great dinner and talk, then came home and she finally got to meet Karjam. 

Dongdaemun Market and KOUS

April 27^th, 2011

Karjam and I took mom to 동대문시장 Dongdaemun Market, Karjam bought her a modernized 한복 hanbok vest, it's really cool. We walked back along the 청계천 Cheonggyecheon, the awesome streamside park in central Seoul. Then in the evening I took mom to another performance, again dance at KOUS. It was so much less interesting than the previous week, but armed with her knitting (she hardly needs to ever look at it) mom stayed wide awake. I was struck by 진옥섭 Jin Okseop adopting a slightly more serious attitude, there were less jokes and more straightforward introductions to the pieces. Maybe he was just in a bad mood, I don't know.

The first piece, by 김진수 was really odd. First of all he was introduced as doing 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum but when I had first seen the poster for the series I was with 김은주 (Bongsan Talchum isuja) who looked at the poster photo (looking pretty much like Bongsan Talchum) and stated "I have no idea who this guy is." Neither the costume nor the mask looked quite 'right' to me and the motions were pretty different. Afterwards I ran into 고석진 in the hallway and I asked who he had come to see (김진수 and 최종실) so I asked him where 김진수 had learned Bongsan Talchum. He leaned in close to me and said "you know there are two types, the official and the unofficial." I would have asked more questions but right then another friend of his tapped him on the other shoulder, and mom was waiting.

Several were entirely forgettable but then 이민아 performed 승무 seungmu and I felt that she was powerful and expressive. The best two acts, though, were the last 정 란 performed an exquisite 입춤 ipchum, she was very saucy, as though she was making love to the audience. And 최종실 Choi Jongshil, professor of percussion at 중앙대 Jungang University, was awesome. I intend to interview him before long, it just hasn't happened yet. He performed 소고춤 sogochum which is a lot more exciting than it sounds when you see someone do it really well! He would crouch and hit the sogo and the stick on the floor, as well as hit the sogo with the stick, it was very dynamic. All sorts of awesome turns and twists and perfectly timed hits on the sogo. I had met about 9 of his students on the subway, all freshmen. Their department takes 15 a year, and only one was not doing traditional percussion (she was doing Western drum set style). Two of those on the subway were doing 상모/소고 sangmo/sogo as their specialty.  

Mom Arrives in Korea and the K-Arts Students Have a Show

April 14^th, 2011

We went to the airport on the new airport railroad and picked up mom. She'll be here for two weeks.

I ran off to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum soon after we arrived home. Class was sort of depressing. I made some silly mistakes when I intended to finally do this one part error free. I was just having an off night I guess but it really bummed me out.

April 15^th, 2011

I woke up at 3:30 (two hours sleep) and got mom up (not hard because of the time difference). We went to 조계사 Jogye Temple for the morning prayers. I think our taxi driver there was drunk.

The prayers were good but because of mom's bad knees she can't do any of the prostrations, which is too bad. I did 108 before the service actually started, then during the main prayer suddenly my knee sort of popped and it started to be almost torture to do any additional prostrations. The service was particularly long with a series of prayers I haven't do much, but a nice 보살 bosal (volunteer in the temple) came and brought me a prayer book that included those prayers and I really enjoyed chanting, I understood a lot of the prayers we recited, much more than I understand the prayers I'm used to doing.

Before we left we bought some things, she bought 3 little gifts and I bought a ring for myself with 반야심경 the prayer Banya Shimgyeong on it. I think mom enjoyed the trip to the temple. When we left it was just starting to get light a little. We headed to the bus stop and took the bus back home and napped.

After we got up we went to the 찜질방 Korean bathhouse/spa. It was a good place to take mom, I think. We enjoyed all the saunas and pools before we joined Karjam in the co-ed area. I think we were there about 3 hours, but when we left Karjam decided to stay.

In the evening we went to the Korean National University of the Arts for the new student performance. All the new students in the School for the Traditional Performing Arts performed. The first piece was a court orchestra piece and I was really impressed. Honestly, that's not my favorite style of Korean music but I thought that the performance was highly professional, really I could not perceive any difference between their performance and that of any ordinary traditional music orchestra, despite the fact that all the players were freshmen (who would be approximately 18-20 American age). The next three pieces featured 거문고 geomungo, 가야금 gayageum and 해금 haegeum. Although I was looking forward especially to the geomungo, the piece was just a boring composition (it was a new work). The gayageum piece was Pachabel's Canon on 3 different pitches of gayageum (with three players per pitch). Blah. I am not a fan of trying to recreate a Western sound on a Korean instrument. It's a waste of the capabilities of the instrument. The haegeum piece also was nothing special. Next we had a vocal number with four pansori singers, a gayageum byeongchang player/singer, several minyoperformers and one women doing jeongga. I found their performance pretty good but not great, at least it got mom fully awake (she is jet-lagged). One really super fun aspect was hearing this type of singing with a knowledgeable (and supportive) audience. There was so much well done 추임새 chuimsae. The next piece was dance, a giant rendition of taepyeongmu and the only performance for the night with upper classmen (why? I see no reason why they couldn't have just had fewer dancers on the stage). It was frankly the most boring and soulless rendition of taepyeongmu I think I've ever seen. Mom fell back asleep.

Of course the important part of the show was the last act: the performance by the 연희학과 Department of Traditional Folk Theatre. The show opened with 13 (of 15 new students) on stage playing seated 사물놀이 samulnori. Actually they all began on 장구 janggu then they switched to samulnori. I was glad off the video camera as it made it easy for me to spot Ga-eun who stayed on janggu and Heesu who switched to buk. Of course as soon as I saw that Wonjung and Inseon were not there, I knew it was because they were in costume somewhere off stage. They entered the stage and the drums switched to a smaller configuration and one player re-emerged on 태평소 taepyeongso. Wonjung was dressed as the old yangban husband and Inseon as the old grandmother, his wife. They discovered each other and exchanged various fairly typical dialogue, then introduced the tight-rope walker. The tight-rope walker was very good, certainly 80% as good as the top performers, National Human Treasures, who I've seen. After he was featured there was a section for standing 풍물 pungmul performers, with Ga-eun as one of the two 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari players. She had a wonderful section being featured dancing with the large poof of ostrich feather whip that they manipulate much like a sangmo. There were several dance solos, including Heesu on sogo with wonderful manipulation of the sangmo. I am totally impressed. Two other Namsadangnoli trick performers came out (I think one was the same guy as the tightrope) and they dealt with spinning tops and disks.

It was absolutely a wonderful performance and I was so proud of the students. Afterwards I gave my students some drinks and told them they did a good job, while I was talking to Ga-eun Professor Kim Duksu came up and asked her who I was. I was a bit tongue-tied, but managed to ask him for an interview. He passed me off to another professor, a theory expert. I guess I'll have to try to ask him again at another time when I'm more prepared! I think mom had fun but she was really exhausted by the time we got home. 

Watching Goseong Practice at KNUA

March 15th, 2011
I worked on the computer. Had lunch with Sarah. Worked on the computer. Went to 상모 sangmo class.

In class there was 현석 Hyeonseok, 지수 Jisu (who has not practiced since the fall), 성현 Seonghyeon and I. 이종휘 Yi Jonghui decided to loan me his really awesome whip part on the sangmo, and it is heavier than mine and spins SO SMOOTHLY. I looked in the mirror and partially because of the superior equipment, but partially because I really have improved a thousand fold, I was momentarily amazed that it was actually me making those perfect motions. Jonghui, as usual, was a hardass and made us repeatedly practice the same thing… I wanted to do 나비사 nabisa with his whip, but no, instead I did reversed direction circles for the second week—but those look almost as good as the counter-clockwise regular circles, now.

March 16th, 2011
I had lunch with Jan, a German guy studying Korean and interested in doing research on 판소리 pansori, worked on translation, and went to KNUA to see everyone practicing. First I met 혜미 Haemi and 경진 Gyeongjin for dinner. We just went to a little Korean-style fast-food place (a 분식 bunshik). But I bought their dinner and also bought some drinks for everyone while practicing at the market. During vacation they both worked at different kinds of drinking establishments, and they told me they'd been practicing three times a week, giving each other critical feedback. Classes started at the beginning of March and they're learning 양주별산대 Yangju Byeolsandae, 경기도 새남굿 Gyeonggido Saenamgut (a shamanic ritual, they learn the music and dance primarily), they have a lot of theory classes this term, too. They also mentioned that 창열 Changyeol was going to come to evening rehearsal. When we got to campus and the practice room everyone was there except for 기영 Giyeong who was at a funeral. I got tons of totally awesome hugs when I arrived. I scribbled six notebook pages of notes while watching, to summarize:
In addition to Changyeol, 안대천 Ahn Daecheon also came to practice, as he's a whole gigantic one year older than Changyeol, he talked most of the time and Changyeol was relatively quiet. Daecheon's wife and daughter (who's less than a month) also came to practice.

The students began with the basic motion set followed by 덧뷔기 deotbuigi. 재윤 Jaeyun played the 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari and Haemi played the 장구 janggu (because during the performance as well they'll be the primary musicians). As soon as they finished the basic motions then they moved directly into Act 1 (문둥북춤 Mundung Bukchum). 태환 Taehwan was playing the part and I thought he looked a lot more fluid, if a bit repetitive in his motions. But Daecheon criticized him intensely, particularly focusing on the fact that he didn't convincingly show his interest in the 소고 sogo before he came and tried to pick it up.

The students moved onto the second act, but after a couple minutes Daecheon stopped them again, this time with pointers that they needed to seem more excited to be "at play" than they were, how they should avoid 말뚝이 Malddugi's whip and so on. He said they didn't even look like they were worried they'd get hit. After a bit more criticism and an example of how several characters should be acting, the scene started again. As 민기 Min'gi entered the center for the Malddugi solo it was clear he was hesitant, he looked down at the floor and shook his head after small mistakes or to shake out the next move. Daecheon stopped them again, talked to Min'gi (but somewhat mildly it seemed to me) and criticized the musicians, saying they weren't connecting with the dancers. When 정우 Jeong'u had to do his solo for 원양반 Won Yangban he had the half smile that says "oh crap, I'm going to screw up." He also kept his head down a lot, biting his lip and faltering on his speeches. Min'gi lost his balance on a dance solo, to his evident embarrassment. While they were practicing next to me Gyeongjin was running through the monk's steps. It seemed obvious to me that the students may have been rarely practicing or not practicing at all and before long Daecheon announced that they were all worse than they'd been at Goseong (so does that mean he and Changyeol hadn't stopped in at all until the day I came?). Daecheon even questioned if Jeong'u was right for the part, asking everyone if they'd been practicing their individual dances, and asserting that everyone needed to practice special dance parts at least three times per day and then when rehearsing show some awareness of where the audience is, where the edge of the stage is, what angle to look at and generally to keep the energy level high, which it was not. The second time through Jeong'u looked more masculine and confident and he remembered all the dialogue, making me really think they just hadn't been practicing enough to remember stuff.

Act 3 went pretty smoothly and it runs out to the end, but Daecheon points out that the Yangban should move more like a yangban. Also they must choose where on the stage to do certain things and then keep doing it that way when they practice.

Act 4 is barely criticized, and Gyeongjin doesn't make any mistakes but the two women are told they don't look feminine enough and Daecheon points out a lack of intention in the mood- the old monk must seem like he's really into the women.

Act 5 was criticized by far the most. The blocking is off on the stage, the group hasn't practiced enough together, and Changyeol says it wasn't even funny, though it should be. Changyeol says it was "제일 보기 싫어" (the one that was the most painful to watch), basically all parts of it are wrong, even to the fact that the students hadn't brought props they need for the practice. They were told they looked like they didn’t want to be practicing. "Get your mood up! Don't depend on us to be here, figure this out for yourself." The students answer that they'll practice every day from April, but Daecheon and Changyeol want them to find places and ways to practice every day now, separated by act being fine.

Then Act 5 is told to practice again and again, until at least 11 pm but around 10:30 everyone else is excused worried about timing to get home, I left, too.

Bongsan Talchum and Sangmo Class

March 7th, 2011
I took Aimee to experience the heaven of the Korean bathhouse (찜질방). She agreed it was heaven.

In the evening I took her to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class, mistakenly thinking she'd find it as much fun as me. She did not, however, join in, so I ended up feeling like I'd just dragged her along out of some pig-headed idea that it would surely be fascinating without stopping to think that she's not my mom (who even now is willing to find all my activities of at least moderate interest just cause they're something I like to do).

Class was non-standard as 김은주 Kim Eunju and the other Bongsan folks had a big important meeting going on, she stopped by once to see how we were doing, but we basically did it all on our own. 병호 Byeongho more or less led class, although 하연 Hayeon, 정현 Jeonghyeon and I helped out. 수미 Sumi did the accompaniment on 장구 janggu for the class, it was amazing how much harder it was to do with her drumming than normally, although she did get smoother during the class. Actually to be fair, Kim Eunju is known for being just an amazing accompanist for mask dancing, so perhaps what I was really experiencing was what a difference there is between someone beating out the 장단 jangdan (rhythmic pattern) and someone playing for dancers while producing the jangdan.

We went through each of the acts and then did the solos and the combined final dance for the eight dark faced monks. Of course I did monk 3. At the end of class we worked on the lion dance.


March 8th, 2011
After Aimee left I actually got back on track and did some serious writing/editing. It wasn't just having a guest that's more fun to hang out with than writing; it was also that until I woke up on Tuesday I hadn't felt fully physically healthy in an entire week.

I called 이종휘 Yi Jonghui to find out what time 상모 sangmo class would start and he said 6, but then when 현석 Hyeonseok and I arrived he said that due to the large number of college kids who were still in class until 6, we'd have to start at 7. So he taught just the two of us until nearly 7, when others started to show up, and kept class going until 9. Others were 지용 Jiyong (together weeks 3 and 6), 림한 Rimhan (last summer week 8 and winter week 3 and practicing all fall in Seoul), 효준 Hyojun (practicing in Seoul and at week 6 but not in sangmo), 성현 Seonghyeon (week 6). Class was tough. Partially because it was three hours, but partially because Yi Jonghui had us do the same motion over and over for almost the entire class. We were working on coordinating out 소고 sogo with the perfect sangmo motion, trying to get the hand motions right (not robotic) with the sogo is harder than it looks. We practiced almost the same sogo motion more than half the class, but we had different sangmo motions. One of which was to have us rotate counterclockwise instead of clockwise. My previous best was 10 rotations last night my rotations looked much better and I got up to 24, but I also pinched a nerve in my neck. Then the rest of the class was devoted to a sogo motion where you just raise and lower your sogo with the stick touching in the whole time. Sounds simple, I know. But I had to look left two (sogo down, up) and right two (sogo down, up) while spinning to each side and it was so frustrating. I never got it really right. At the end we switched our sangmo motion but kept doing the same sogo motion. I was pretty exhausted when we were done.

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.

From Sangmo to Songpa Dari Balpgi

February 11th, 2011
In the morning I practiced 상모 sangmo with the class until at 11:20 when everyone went outside and bowed goodbye to me. 이재정 Yi Jaejeong ran me to the bus station. Unfortunately just as I was leaving I realized that my hat (a green fleece hat my mom made) was misplaced. I couldn't find it again in my few minutes before leaving even though I checked the most obvious places. Frustrating!

In 전주 Jeonju I had lunch at a vegetarian buffet with my awesome friend 월덕 Woldeok who has gotten engaged (and chosen a wedding date) since I saw her a month ago.

I reached Seoul rather later than I wanted to and scrambled to go meet a friend who was on her way from one country to another and only in Seoul for about 15 hours as a layover. She spent the night. I'd say who except she doesn't want other friends in Korea to feel dissed because she only saw me. It was really awesome to see her, but I'm afraid she was so jet-lagged I did most of the talking.

February 12th, 2011
I had to wake up at 5:30 to prepare a very light breakfast and walk my friend to the airport shuttle, and surprisingly I stayed awake afterwards and got some work done. At 1:30 I arrived at 서울 놀이 마당 Seoul Noli Madang, the home of 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli for rehearsal of 송파다리밟기 Songpa Dari Balpgi (Songpa Bridge Crossing).

Songpa Dari Balpgi is registered for protection by the City of Seoul (Songpa Sandae Noli is registered by the nation). Dari Balpgi is a perfect example of a reenactment. The life of the ceremony is gone, it's just motions that people (we) are going through because it has some historical significance and has been chosen (somewhat arbitrarily) to be labeled "important heritage" that should be protected. It is taxidermized culture. On the other hand, if you openly admit something is a reenactment, and don't pretend that people in the modern world actually do march around Seoul guarding and escorting local governmental figures as they survey the region on important days of the year, there isn't any harm in it, right? Ceremonies, like Songpa Dari Balpgi, tend to be quite openly reenactments and acknowledged by participants and observers as non-living culture. There are some other reenactments that are not clearly taxidermized; chief among these is National Intangible Cultural Asset # 1, 종묘제례(악) Jongmyo Jerye(ak). This is a ceremony for honoring the ancestors of the Yi (former ruling family) line and the associated music (ak). The participants include professional musicians and college students BUT they also include a large number of Yi descendants holding tablets with ancestral names. To those people it's a pretty big deal to be part of the ceremony, and they (maybe not all of them) do feel a real connection to their ancestors. So –that- ceremonial reenactment is in much more of a grey area.

As I explained last summer when I performed in Songpa Dari Balpgi, most of the performers are members of Songpa Sandae Noli with a group of about 8 singers (who manipulate 소고 sogo) who sing 선소리 Seonsori (standing songs) during a key part of the reenactment. These singers and about a half dozen other people are not Songpa Sandae Noli members, but the rest are. And on Saturday we prepared for the big 대보름 Daeboreum (first full moon of the lunar new year) event first by filling small bags with roasted in the shell peanuts while others made bundles of cloth for torches, then by rehearsing Dari Balpgi. We had to rehearse outside, of course, and it was -10 celsius which made it so we really rushed through practice.

Cell photos of An Byeong'in directing us and a bunch of us milling around the 마당 madang practicing.



Afterwards 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk, my friend and the office manager, asked if I knew one more person we could get to perform with us (someone had bailed out). I agreed to contact some people and she clarified that she wanted as many young men as possible to show up on Sunday morning at 10:30 to rehearse Songpa Sandae Noli. I contacted friends from KNUA and by the end of the day had a good response.

The rest of the day I just worked on some computer stuff and went to bed super early.

Day 3 of the Winter Sangmo Intensive

February 9th, 2011
It stayed warm all night. Or should I say seriously hot. But the good news was that in the morning the video camera was working properly. I really think it just hates to get cold. I was able to shoot the entire morning class.

We began class on time, with me leading the beginning exercises, then practiced on our own stuff until the teacher arrived (all in all, though, this teacher is much more prompt than most of the teachers I have had here). He had everyone who could do 양사위 yangsaui do 150, but at just past 100 there was a mistake and he made us start again. So we certainly got a work out. Then I was assigned to walk and do 나비사 nabisa at the same time!!!!!!!!! Wow! And I was able to do it (with sort of tentative steps at first but I got better). That was great.

In the afternoon, as usual on Wednesdays, we had a game day. I was in team 8, and each team began by making a name and a song/chant. We named ourselves 원래 골찌 "have always been last" more or less. I could probably translate that better if I spent time thinking about it. I think in Korean, so I don't always know how to translate things. Anyway, it was a joke about how the team I've been on has always been last every time I've done one of these camps at 필봉 Pilbong. And the song was pretty funny, too. It went more or less "There's no denying I'm always last, that 막걸리 makgeolli over there won't be mine, even coming here four times, always last, this time I'm sure to be last again." We had four rounds of games. First we played a charades type game, where you relayed the acting through the whole team (pair by pair) and the first person in line had to guess what it was. We lost totally unfairly because the other teams subject was movies, and all the movies were major blockbusters, then our subject was animals and the animals were like "water skater beetle" and "gray bearded baboon" and things like that. Really hard to guess! Two times our team just had to pass the animals because the first guy had no idea what they were. The only one that compared with Titanic and Matrix was giraffe. The second round was the best. Totally fun. We had to lock our arms to our legs and then scoot on our butts and knock over the other team with our feet until we got their queen. I was a total killer. It was great. We won twice and so there wasn't a third game. Which almost made me sad we had won both times. The third round was horrible. We had to do three legged races to the 장구 janggu and then one person played each side of the janggu. After you'd randomly drawn the name of a 장단 jangdan (rhythmic pattern). Of course I don't really remember any of the jangdan names, so I was a total handicap to the team. We lost royally, because it was a race to get through all our pairs before the other team did, and they won by miles. The last round was actually four games, we won the first and third, but then the judges said the first game was a practice game. Game one was where you say a number and the people on the other team stand up or not. If the same number stand up as was named, then the team loses. Game two was a really complex Korean rhythmic syllabic game and I bowed out. You had to say a four syllable word or phrase four times, accenting a different syllable each time, as fast as you could. Then the next person did it but they couldn't go in the same order as you. The third game was another speed game with guessing the word, but this time the person who knew the word described it to the next person in line. We had to get through as many people as we could in the allotted time. We got through nine people, I did fine. Our subject was "bathroom" I had to guess "plunger" and had to describe "bidet." The other team drew the subject "Korean TV stars" so if we'd had that then my team would have been screwed. The final game was a game of true or false, the last team with players who were right would win. It was so sad, it ended up me against two girls from the other team and on the last question I went true, with one of them, the other went false. It was false. So close…

Then we all reassembled and my team had come in seventh (out of eight). We got 4 bottles of makgeolli as our prize, but then there was a big true or false game and my team was the last standing and we won 5 more bottles.

Photos of our team:




After dinner we had sangmo practice again. Everyone was doing well, except 의영 Uiyeong still can't really spin even once. This guy 진용 Jinyong who was with me in Week 3 arrived the evening of the 8th to do sangmo, too. In the morning he wasn't able to do nabisa and worked with 정화 Jeonghwa, but by the evening he exploded into really doing it well, which sort of frustrated me.

The 뒤풀이 duipuli for the night was according to the teams of the day. We had our 9 bottles, with 8 people, but we were having fun and decided to go begging off other groups. We got one from our neighbors, then three from one group by doing my arm trick, and three from another group by using my braid like a sangmo ribbon. So we all ended up with at least two bottles each. I was sitting next to 문형 Munhyeong, another individual participant, and 형진 Hyeongjin, a future acupuncturist. It was a lot of fun, especially when we started playing this huge selection of games. I'm almost getting good at those with so much practice. Fry pan game, strawberry game, image game, makondo, one where you have to do the multiplication tables, etc. I went to bed at three after two and a half bottles.

Day 2 of the Winter Sangmo Intensive

February 8th, 2011

It was another really amazing day. First of all, though I doubted I could sustain it I –still—did well in 상모 sangmo class all day long. Today the teacher, 이재정 Yi Jaejeong, had me work on 나비사nabisa, a movement that sketches a butterfly with the sangmo (left wing, right wing, center backward and forward). Amazingly by the end of the day I could do the move at least mostly correctly 5 or more times in a row without pause. It's really amazing! Other than that in the afternoon because two of the more beginning people are able to sort of do 양사위 (right 1, 2, left 1, 2) the six of us had to practice together (as in 정화 Jeonghwa, 진영 Jinyeong, 범준 Beomjun, me and those two). We just stood in a line and practiced over and over, trying to hit 200 without a mistake, which of course since two people had only started doing it that day was impossible, but at any rate we practiced a lot as we TRIED to hit 200 as a group.

Today Jaejeong put on a sangmo (Beomjun's) for the first time. Which made it clear that he teaches NOT by example, but through talking. He does physically move the head of low level people, but not more advanced students, and he does sketch the moves without a sangmo on (which is pretty important when you are talking about a spinning move or a jumping move like he was having Beomjun and Jinyeong work on today). However, in general he talks us through things, in a very relaxed manner.

In the afternoon 김동민 Kim Dongmin came to talk to him. Dongmin came into the door and got down belly to the floor. So Jaejeong did the same. But then Dongmin was moving forward on his stomach, and Jaejeong had to slither off the stage he was sitting on to do likewise. The whole time they'd come up, see the other and go "Ohhh ohhh, aigo" and go down in a super deep bow again. It was really funny. I was, however, conducting an interview when that happened, so it did interfere with things, but Dongmin had to come and complain about being forced to learn to drum right handed (he's left handed) in order to teach some students. Jaejeong is also left handed… so they commiserated.

Otherwise… we had the drinks I bought because I couldn’t play the game, and we also had drinks after Jaejeong demonstrated (the idea was that he deserved an appearance fee). I led us in beginning exercises before morning and afternoon classes. I told everyone to be back at 7 for evening classes and we all worked hard and helped each other to improve. I went back to my room at 9:30 and worked a bit on a fellowship application then showered with 민경 Min'gyeong. I forgot to mention but three of the students that I did 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae with in 2009 are here, including Min'gyeong.

Starting at 11 we had an exclusive 뒤풀이 duipuli for the sangmo people. I tried hard to facilitate a good mood, and eventually everyone really loosened up and talked with each other a lot. I think we're all getting to be close. We switched seats several times, talking to whoever was next to us and also playing games together. We didn't drink much because the training center has a new 1 bottle of 막걸리 makgeolli per person rule, which is not much. In my opinion anyway, since for me one bottle would only be a buzz if I scarfed it on a mostly empty stomach.

Spinning the Sangmo (again)

February 7th, 2011
I am particularly happy as I type up my report for the day. There are ten people in the 상모 sangmo class, and I'm the third best! The best two are 진영 Jinyeong from the Ewha University team and 범준 Beomjun (who as I mentioned yesterday was with me last summer and in Seoul). I'm not sure which of them is better- it probably depends on the move, but I think probably Jinyeong is overall a stronger sangmo person. At any rate, four or five are trying sangmo for the first time and the others have had very little experience. The best of these, 종화 Jonghwa from the Hallym University team, is where I was at in about the end of September. The instructor 이재정 Yi Jaejeong has been an 이수자 isuja for the past 15 years. He has been doing traditional performance for 21 years and is the same age is me. I was told last night that he taught sangmo to all the current sangmo teachers (who weren't available to teach us), and that he was very "scary." I don't think he's scary at all, his class is really comfortable.

First thing in the morning he determined who was a total beginner and had them take off their sangmo and put it back on to his satisfaction. At this point he announced that we needed a class captain. And I became the captain which is sort of funny, especially since without Jinyeong and Beomjun I'd have no idea what to do. Jaejeong took us through some exercises and told me to lead the group through the same exercises before each class (morning and afternoon) for twenty minutes. After the exercises he split us according to whether we could or could not spin, and then asked us to do several spins, I was between Jinyeong and Beomjun, and acquitted myself fairly well. He then had the three of us keep working together. We had to do 500 circles of 양사위 yangsaui (both sides), and I only lost the spin about 3 times! He had us work on the same thing with beating the 소고 sogo, then we had to do a lot of forward and back marching while spinning but –not- bending our knees (he has a point, I'm not sure what it is yet). We had to march 1,2,3,4 for each beat, then we had to march 1,2 (two beats per step) then we had to march 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 to only 4 beats! Which was really hard, especially when we were doing it in reverse. This is all while we're doing two spins on each side (1,2 looking right 3,4 looking left). At first we were doing this while hitting the sogo (1,2 at waist level, raise to face level, 4) later after we learned this super fast sogo beating technique, we were supposed to do the same. I really didn't do well at this, because I kept tensing up, and as I tensed up, then I wasn't relaxed enough to move fast. Frustrating … At the end of the day Jaejeong had all of us work on the steps for the giant spinning jumping move that is the highlight and pride of any sangmo dancer.

After class we had to watch a video of a performance that I was present at (I appear in the video), we had to watch the same video in week 3, and 인하 Inha was with us in week 3, and has been here the entire time (from week 1), so I wonder how many times she's seen it.

After dinner starting at 7:00 we had our individual practice. Usually at this time people practice with the members of their team, but the practice for sangmo students is for the sangmo students to keep working together. Around 8:00 we finally had all 10 members of our class. In my position as captain I brought everyone together and we introduced ourselves and played a Korean game for name memorization. Which I had never done before, and I sucked, so I lost—this means I have to buy refreshments for practice tomorrow. But we learned everyone's name. In addition to Beomjun and Jinyeong, the other members (I know you don't care, but this is where I make my notes to remember things later for when I'm writing my dissertation…) are 서민수 Seo Minsu, 구윤회 Gu Yunhoi, 안의영 An Uiyeong, 김형준 Kim Hyeongjun, 홍선형 Hong Seonhyeong, 오정화 O Jeonghwa and 서지원 Seo Jiwon. I practiced hard (I was sweating) but I'm not sure about some of the others who are (like I was six months ago) so frustrated it's hard to keep going.

Jaejeong teaches without spending much time correcting mistakes. For example, I know I need to power my swing by going down, but I power on the up stroke. He hasn't mentioned it. I know when I do yangsaui I have a head twitch, he hasn't mentioned that either. He also hasn't told Jeonghwa that her sangmo hat is so far forward it's not able to spin in the correct place. He mostly just tells us new things and works with us on –those- things, and leaves the rest of it alone. I'm not sure if he will go back and correct them later, or not. He smiles a lot, but he also says "Dal (that's what he calls me, but it's the closest to a name any of us have, he calls others by their major or what not), you have to relax. You have to count while you're doing it and not rush the move." And other similar corrections. I'd videotape it, but the video camera is being uncooperative. Really frustrating. Perhaps it'll work later.

At 9:30 I quit practicing and grabbed my computer, which I used in the office for a few minutes. I've been so busy since I've been here that I have to put some serious time in now just to keep the journal up to date and get ready a paper to submit to one of my dissertation writing groups. Back in the room, however, we quickly started an informal 민요 minyo class. One of our independent members can sing well, so she's helping everyone to either learn or learn better a series of minyo. The 뒤풀이 duipuli was pretty ordinary, as duipuli goes. I just talked with some folks, esp. 주원 Juwon.

The Day I Perform Sangmo in the Snow

January 14th, 2010 Two Days Before my Birthday (Phone calls and emails welcome because I'll be hanging out with a bunch of people who've never met me before, and I like b-day acknowledgement)

Woke up, ate breakfast, had morning class. The class went very well, although 수희 Suhee talked a lot, it was interesting and I learned a lot and remembered to record a fair amount of what she said with my voice recorder. One of the recently arrived 개전연 Gaejeonyeon people, 우현택 U Hyeon-taek, is a Korean traditional dance major. He was urged to stand up and give a small presentation. Part of the discussion after class ended was on the ways to evaluate different 장구 janggu. Basically, the more lines of the tree on the janggu the older it is, the slower growing, the better the wood, the better the sound. There are sizes to janggu, you should match it to your own size. 영록 Yeongnok, who is broad shouldered and nearing 6 feet tall, uses an 8. Usually if you're sitting to play you want a slightly larger one than if you play 풍물 pungmul a lot (since pungmul is properly played while dancing/marching around). A half size difference is about normal. Suhee, who is quite petite, uses a 6 for pungmul.

Lunch (totally meat, I barely ate anything but rice and the soup, which was thin black sesame gruel). Then I interviewed Janghyeok. Which was interesting, because I rarely can talk with anyone except people like 이종휘 Yi Jonghui and 김은주 Kim Eunju and 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk about arts politics, unless I've made a special interview appointment to interview someone. It's been awhile since I had a discussion with someone new about this stuff and his age, well, it was just a very refreshing conversation.

At 2 the performers assembled in our practice room and talked about the performance and prepared ourselves. If the 상모 sangmo is loose on my head, it's hard to spin, avoiding that I erred on the side of so tight after awhile I thought I was cutting off circulation to my brain. Seriously, it was painful. We started playing around 2:40. It was two 북 buk, one 징 jing, two 장구 janggu, and two 꽹과리 gwaenggwari with two 소고 sogo dancers, two sangmo and sogo dancers (obviously one of those was me) and three elementary school children also on sangmo and sogo. Plus three people doing 잡색 japsaek, the characters who dance around in the performance. We started playing and then 국진 Geukjin, who was the 상쇠 sangsoi (lead gwaenggwari player who leads the whole group) led us onto the snow, which we were packing into sludgy ice with our steps. I was trying to spin my sangmo and my feet were slipping sideways at the same time. And my shoes didn't feel thick enough for dancing on snow/ice. After too long there, we moved, and paused at another spot, then we moved again in between the old traditional buildings where the instructors live. We re-enacted the ceremony at 대보름 Daeboreum (first full moon of the lunar new year) where you dance to someone's house and bless them and get fed and liquored up in return. Suhee and 원로 Wonno acted the part of the householders. We danced there and got fed a bit and some people drank soju, then I finally took off my sangmo (blessed relief) and packed it up to leave. We ended playing at 4:45 and Geukjin drove me to town, where I caught the bus to Jeonju.




In Jeonju I ate dinner and had tea with Bonnie, a friend from the US who is also in Korea on a Fulbright-Hays, and 김월덕 Kim Woldeok, one of my two closest Korean girlfriends. It was such a wonderful break from food at the training center.

Caught the bus to Seoul, the bus had internet! Man I love Korea.

Imshil Pilbong Nongak Training Center for Drumming Camp

January 9th, 2010
I made it to the bus on time, but I had to take a taxi because of my giant suitcase (including warm blue blanket), 장구janggu (the largest instrument… why didn't I decide to learn 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari the gong approximately the size of a salad plate and a little deeper than the length of the thumb?) and my shoulder bag with computer and various books.

Part of going with 개전연 (개인전수연합) gaejeonyeon, the group I joined in summer 2009, is getting into the group think of Korean group activities. This is when I'm glad Karjam's not with me. I love my husband but he's a serious barrier to me being able to just sink into the group for maximum participant observation research value. When we got to the rest-stop we had to wait outside the bathrooms for everyone to come out. In the convenience store everyone's drinks had to be bought together, which of course means that you should pick something reasonable like my 750 won bottle of water, it would be very bad form to grab a 2,200 won drink, even if you had the money, because the group was pooling their money. Then we bought snacks from the snack vendors, but everything had to be for sharing. I shared my toasted pressed dried fish (쥐포) and received a cookie, a package of cookies (brought from Seoul), a walnut cake stuffed with red bean paste and offers of several other things. It would have been incredibly rude for me not to share. There are several Gaejeonyeon members I don't know with us, most of them are members of 이화여대 Ewha Woman's [sic] University's team. 은정Eunjeong, our dominant personality, graduated from Ewha last year (February, that's Korean graduation month) and maintains a close connection to their team. The most eager team members who didn't feel that one week of practice (with their entire group) would be enough, have come this time as well. They will be returning with the other Ewha members in the same week that I return to do sangmo study. It seems that this will be a small week, traditionally the earlier weeks of the training camp are lightly attended, and winter sees less participants than the summer. There were thirty people pre-registered for the camp, by this evening we'll be able to see just what the attendance is going to be. Unfortunately one of the people going is 김린한 Kim Rinhan who I find absolutely the most annoying of anyone I've met associated with 임실필봉농악 Imshil Pilbong Nongak. We were in the same sangmo class last summer, and until recently he's also attended the Seoul Training Center classes. Eunjeong also finds him very irritating.

After we arrived at the Training Center we met 선홍 Seonhong, who I've been on two previous programs with and met up with at a festival, he's an Arabic major. He also was here the previous week, and so he was tasked with meeting us and telling us that we'd be staying in the 영산관 Yeongsan Hall. Almost all of us will stay in one big room, this is probably because it's cheaper to heat this building, and maybe they're even able to turn off the heat in some of the rooms. One other room is in use, a much smaller one. Gaejeonyeon has one half of the big room but more than one half the people.

Group think manifested again when we pooled our money so that one person could deal with finances for all of us. And when a giant paper was taped to the wall with our six rules, one more large paper, still in progress, tells us what we're responsible to clean on which day. And when it was time to go eat, we all went together. And then when two people had to go back to their rooms, I made sure that we didn't start eating until they got back, and when everyone finished eating we all stood up and turned in our plates, bowls, chopsticks and spoons at once. Actually I didn't have a bowl as the soup was made with meat, but the rest of the meal was fine. One of the girls sitting across from me, however, sat down and looked at her meal and said "this would be a good week for me to go on a diet."

After the meal we all hung around except for a few extra enthusiastic people who went to practice. At 8 we had a big group meeting to lay down the rules and expectations and answer any questions we might have. No one volunteered for the positions of 학생회장 Student President or 총무 Manager, although some did nominate their friends. At last 세미 Semi (Seh-mee), the manager of the winter camp picked too people, the President is 다원Dawon, a woman with an exceptionally great smile, the manager is one of the guys from 경희대 Gyeongheui (Kyunghee) University, 규광 Gyugwang. The three groups who are here are Gaejeonyeon, Kyunghee University and a high school thirty minutes away has sent three students. Then there are a few independent people who naturally are sucked into Gaejeonyeon, which means we are by far the largest and most dominant group. She told the women from our group to sleep in a separate room. In the morning when I woke up, I saw that mostly that's what happened. After reviewing the cleaning duties, the rules for safety and civility at the camp and offering several times to answer questions (no one had any) Semi ended the meeting.

I tagged after her and explained my health issue. She directed me to a restroom that is rarely used, warm and private. I will use that for things related to recovery from my surgery, and I feel confident that I can take care of myself well while I'm here.

We had our 뒤풀이 duipuli or after hours party starting a little earlier than we will the rest of the week, 승민 Seungmin made a huge pot of instant noodles and people shared out various other snacks as well. 막걸리 makgeolli was also shared around the circle. I spent most of my social time talking with 원모 Wonmo (don't get confused as the head of Gaejeonyeon is Wonno) and 휘 Hui, two participants from Kyunghee University. Group think was much in evidence as people shared noodles off the same plate or pan lid, refilled each other's glasses and collectively punished anyone who was out of line (by making them sing). I went to bed, or I went to lie down on the hot floor at a little after 11. I slept fairly well.