March Already

March 1st, 2011
It was a holiday, so no 상모 sangmo class, which was good, because I felt pretty darn sick. Tried to get computing done, but not as much progress as I'd hoped.

March 2nd, 2011
I came back to 대구 Daegu for more 합기도 Hapkido. In the morning, on the train and even up until around 6 pm I felt pretty much normal, then I started to feel really ucky again. When I got to the area near the hapkido studio I realized I had enough time to stop and see the 택견 Taekkyon instructor that I learned with the longest.

Tangent: I started Taekkyon in 1998, I moved across town, so I switched to this guy, 정석재 Jeong Seokjae, in late 1999. I like him a lot. He's extremely humble and sweet, but his skills are –amazing-. Incidentally, the guy I started with quit teaching in maybe 2000 or 2001. I kept doing Taekkyon with Jeong Seokjae (and started teaching under him) until 2003. I took a year off (because I was out of Korea) and continued to train Taekkyon starting in 2004 in Seoul, but when that instructor quit (in 2005), I ran the place myself until I finished my MA in 2006. Tangent finished.

I went to see my old Taekkyon instructor, who was practicing on his own when I got there, and we had a great talk for an hour until a class of his students showed up. He looked like he hadn't aged a day. He's also formed a sort of demonstration/performance group for Taekkyon and they've started to participate in various events. He still is sort of struggling to keep enough students (Taekkyon is Korea's most traditional martial art, but it really lacks name recognition and visibility, not to mention that in general Koreans are turning away from the martial arts) but told me he had nothing he'd rather do (making a lot of jokes about wasn't he supposed to worry about money at his age and wasn't he still living life as though he was a twenty year old? But honestly he still looks like he's in his twenties, unless you look really closely (he has a son who is the same age as Hyeonggeon).

(And, random internet person, if you want to learn Taekkyon in Daegu, you only have 3 schools to choose from, I'd recommend this one, the other two schools are run by his students, anyway: In Korean: 053 586 3033). But if you are a random internet searcher for Hapkido schools in Daegu my school, 한양대 신라 합기도 Hanyangdae Shilla Hapkido is in 용산시장 Yongsan Market, nearest 이곡역 Igok Station on Line 2 (same directions for Taekkyon), and you can call the instructor (김유림 Kim Yurim) for more info (in Korean: 010 3535 2245). Obviously I highly recommend the place and the instructor, since I've been learning from him since before most of his Hapkido students were born.)

Subway photo on my cell phone in Daegu- I was struck by how the two friends had their hair cut exactly the same.

I practiced a lot of staff twirling and helped teach the classes. Unfortunately by the time that 박형건 Bak Hyeonggeon showed up (he's back in school now so he can't get off too early) I was feeling weak and listless but trying to convince myself I did not. After all, I had to practice. I managed only a little kicks before I decided I didn't have the energy, so mostly we just practiced the belt and cane and response to 호신술 self-defense moves stuff. I didn't do any falls, at all. I dragged myself back to Georgy and 진홍 Jinhong's house on the last subway of the day.

March 3rd, 2011
I woke up feeling totally lousy, and barely dragged myself out of the blankets periodically to drink some water and use the bathroom. Eventually (although I had hoped to hit the downtown area before going to Hapkido) I went to the E-mart next to Georgy and Jinhong's house and picked up a snack (which I had no appetite for) and some juice (which did seem attractive). I made it to Hapkido around 5 and the 관장님 instructor immediately told me to teach this kid who'd just started while he taught the class. So, I didn't get an opportunity to whine about feeling sick. I was busy teaching straight through until the 7:30 jump rope class, at which time I practiced a little on my own. Hyeonggeon showed up and we went through a few moves, but after I threw him twice in a row I felt so worn out I collapsed, then curled up on a mat and slept just to the side of all the noise and commotion.

After my nap I used almost all of my remaining strength on rehearsing my falls, ran through all the partnered moves with Hyeonggeon (not full speed or full strength however) and then we co-taught the 10 pm class. The class, we'd decided the day before, needed to go back and re-learn everything from the white belt, but learn it precisely this time. The students in the class are mostly 2nd degree blackbelt, and in the upper levels of middle school or in high school, but because they learned white belt when they were in elementary school, they didn't really learn precisely. More like they went through the motions well enough, but if Hyeonggeon or I grab them and say "get away" they can't. They just try to pull (partially afraid to be too aggressive on an instructor, this being Korean culture), or half-heartedly execute a hold-break, but they don't actually properly apply the techniques that they've been taught. Not even the girl who is the tallest member of the class (getting close to 6 feet, a giant in Korea with a strong build) or the boy who has to weigh 75 kilos (at least most of which is not fat) could get away from me. So we lined everyone up into the grabber and the grabbed and Hyeonggeon and I ran through about five moves with them making them practice again and again until the other person really couldn't hold on, or really was having their joint locked.

When I got back to Georgy and Jinhong's, only Jinhong was awake, but we haven't had a chance to have a nice talk, just the two of us, for months, so that was kind of nice even though I was pretty sleepy.


March 4th, 2011
In the morning I lolled around Jinhong and Georgy's, laughing too much over Georgy's new favorite site "damn you autocorrect" or some such name. Some of them really are funny.

The driver of the bus back to Seoul brought me a coffee when we were at the rest area/ bathroom break halfway back to Seoul. How sweet is that? The bus company is called 중앙고속 or Jungang Express, however they've taken to using their internet ID as their primary English name. This is amusingly Jabus (JungAng Bus). I just wish they were using like a dreadlocked head holding a giant spliff for their mascot instead of a running lion. It would definitely set their image apart from the other major bus companies (금호 Geumho (they spell it Kumho which is neither M-R of NGR, grr) and 통양 Tongyang are the other two companies that run over the entire country, though there are also regional bus lines that only service certain areas).

After I got home I spent the rest of the evening wishing I felt better and working on the computer.

Interviews in Yangju

February 28th, 2011
I finally submitted a serious academic article for publication. Or I sent the email for it.

After that I headed to 양주 Yangju, which is north of Seoul and the home of 양주별산대 Yangju Byeolsandae. I'd been there only one time before, but I managed to walk from the subway station there, and it only took 18 minutes (amazingly the women in the info booth tried to tell me it would take me an hour, or at least thirty minutes).
Yangju Byeolsandae uses the traditional school behind this gate for some of their experiential education activities.

When I arrived to interview 김순옥 Kim Sunok, the head of the group and an isuja, she was busy with some unexpected guests. So I sat and talked with 고경민 Go Gyeongmin (and isuja who also works for Yangju Byeolsandae full time- and my 동갑!). He shared with the me the complete data for the number of participants and what they do besides the mask dance drama, which is really valuable information for my dissertation.
Go makes the masks, works in the office and is also licensed to drive the awesome team bus

Then I talked with Kim Sunok for an hour and 45 minutes of on-topic interview, it was amazing. She was open and very very coherent, she discussed political issues and the group in great detail. I am super excited. It was completely great.

I rushed out after the interview because I had to get to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum practice. Fortunately I had anticipated that I might not have time to get home, so I had what I needed with me, but due to stopping for an extremely late lunch of a roll of 김밥 kimbap and printing the afore-mentioned paper so I can send it in, I still was twenty minutes late for class (although they hadn't started dancing yet when I arrived).

Class was good, I can't remember anything special to report on.
Photos of Kim Eunju teaching:

After class 수미 Sumi (the beautiful student in the foreground) and I ate a bit in a restaurant before we went out separate ways. Actually 정현 Jeonghyeon came with us (he's not the guy in the photo) but he didn't want to eat anything. Maybe he doesn't believe in dinner at 9:30.

We Hatch Plans to Perform Bongsan Talchum

December 13th, 2010
봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum was mostly ordinary, there were two exceptional points. 1) We got two new total novices who need to learn from the beginning, it’s been a long time since we’ve had people so fresh. 2) We (the advanced students) decided that we were going to mount a performance before 선영 Seonyeong leaves (January 23rd). This means we may even be meeting to rehearse on the weekends.

I uploaded some videos to Youtube; two entire scenes from 양주별산대Yangju Byeolsandae, three videos since one of the scenes is so long. I did it to help 원중 Wonjung but you might find it interesting, too. [First, Second, Third video]

Day 2 of the Korean Mask Dance Festival

October 30th, 2010
I made it to the festival site before the first show started for the day. I walked up seeing my 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae friend, 황종욱 Hwang Jong’uk but before I could say hi the director of 양주별산대 Yangju Byeolsandae had grabbed my face in both hands (which was sort of funny because she was in full costume with 한삼 hansam on her hands) she was so happy to see me.
“Wa, you’ve come all the way here!”
“Yes, hoijangnim, I’m really excited for the festival.”
“Are you coming to Yangju tonight?”
“Yes, I can come with this friend.” I said, reaching out to Hwang Jong’uk who was probably surprised to see me greeted so demonstratively. Then the Yangju director (김순옥 Kim Sunok) was surprised I knew him…). Of course at the end of the day when it was time to leave Hwang Jong’uk was long gone, but he’d been my back up ride, so it all worked out.

Today there was an announcer. Not just an announcer. A GREAT ONE. He was awesome. He knew a lot, and explained it concisely but in an engaging manner. He even looked perfect in 한복 hanbok and thick grey hair. He came out before Yangju Byeolsandae and between each show and did a great job, the best job of any announcer I’ve seen. On the way to Yangju I asked Bak Sang-un about him and he told that the announcer works for K.O.U.S. as an announcer and researches folk culture. I recognize his name, but I cannot place whether it’s from a publication or meeting him before or what.
Yangju Byeolsandae’s show was great. This time they had their musicians playing 해금 haegeum, 대금 daegeum, 태평소 taepyeongso and 장구 janggu along the back of the stage, somehow this placement changed the feeling of the show for me (usually they are to the side). I’ve already commented on their performances several times recently, one new thing that really stood out to me today was how the music changed and became quite melancholy after the concubine of the yangban is stolen away by a younger man.

The next performance was 통영오광대 Tongyeong Ogwangdae which of course I watched a week ago. Not that I didn’t enjoy seeing it again, I did. I feel like I’m memorizing all the member’s faces. Last time they came to Seoul the one member who is a friend of mine couldn’t come. I haven’t seen him since 2004 and I wanted to meet him face to face again, but when the show ended I couldn’t pick him out. That’s sort of embarrassing. We communicate a lot on the internet about mask dance topics. Fortunately in the evening at Yangju he came up to me (and he had a name tag on. I love name tags).

After Tongyeong was 은율탈춤 Eunyul Talchum. They are similar to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum so I felt the order of the line-up made no sense at all. (Since Bongsan was after Eunyul). I did have to go to the bathroom during all these shows, by the way. But there was basically no break, so no lunch for me and I just left the video camera running and went to the can during the least interesting to me acts. Who knows I may find a surprise later. The audience was much larger than Friday, but they were considerably less responsive. Some foreigners wandered through, some of them even stayed and watched for awhile, but still during the Yangju performance MBC asked me to give an interview (uh, I’m watching right now…). During the Eunyul Talchum performance suddenly a bunch of workers came and told all of us sitting in the prime seats that we had to move because the wives and families of G20 delegates were going to come watch. To tell the truth I was pissed off. I should move after I’ve been sitting there for two and a half hours, arriving fifteen minutes before the first show to get the good seat? I should move for some diplomat’s family even though this is integral to my Ph.D. research and they’re just showing polite interest? I should move even though if they knew we’d been moved to make room for them they’d probably be embarrassed about sitting in the now vacant seats? I didn’t move. If someone wants to bend over backward to make the G20 come off well, that’s great. But I don’t think that their minders should do that by having them show up half way through a show, necessitating a scene to be cut short and the announcer to come out on stage again and tell everyone what was going on and introduce the next scene again (in Korean which none of the diplomatic families could understand and he’d already explained the whole mask dance before it started). They left before that scene was over. Oh well.

The last show was 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum. Their show started late. Even though Eunyul went over time (partially because of the G20 thing), Bongsan started fifteen minutes later and by that time a fair amount of the audience had given up and wandered towards the sounds of other activities in other areas. The Bongsan show started with the 사상좌춤 Sasangjwa dance and within a few moments it was apparent one of the four dancers did not belong with the rest. The dance is very slow, and though the movements are simple, it’s quite difficult because all four must be perfectly in sync with each other (and the small mask eye-holes, their telescope vision field, and the fact that the dancers aren’t always facing each other make that even more difficult). The rest of the show was fairly enjoyable, but there were several hiccups that someone like I could notice, if not a regular audience member. [Video excerpts from the Bongsan Performance]
Photos: Bongsan Talchum. The monk in yellow is No. 3, my favorite to dance as I often mention. The four white characters are the sa (four) sangjwa (novice monks). The guy with the lion is Mabu, different from monk 3 despite the similar costume. That's Halmi (grandmother) with the fan.





After the show I rode with 박상은 Bak Sang-un, as I already mentioned, to Yangju. Why Yangju? Because they were hosting the big meeting (and social) for the festival, with awards being given, a giant buffet, singing, dancing, drinking and speeches. I wanted desperately to go, and had felt very vindicated when I was invited (by 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli first, then later by Goseong Ogwangdae and Yangju Byeolsandae). However, it turned out to be less useful for interviews and contacts than I had been expecting. Although I had some chit-chats with people the atmosphere was not conducive to interviews with anyone I didn’t already know well, and I didn’t have a bunch of new questions to ask the people I already do know well, so it was more of an opportunity to build up good feelings than anything else. I am happy I got to go (and I think my exposure in the room of 25 tables each seating around 10 people, minus the twenty or thirty empty chairs spread around the room although most of them may have been occupied by people who were moving around) will in the long run help me out. I got hugs and handshakes and a lot of smiles. The awards were done by the time we got there and most of the speeches as well. The different groups took turns going up on stage and singing and dancing to the amusement of all. I sat with 김명하 Kim Myeongha from Songpa most of the time, there were only four of us, Kim Myeongha, 김학석 Kim Hakseok (National Human Treasure) and 서병무 Seo Byeongmu (and of course, me). Seo was drunk and trying to speak English, hard enough to understand when he’s not drunk, so I was glad he was mostly not next to me. When our turn came up, instead of singing Trot (old people like it), a cheesy 70s or 80s ballad, or like the hip Goseong Ogwangdae team, a pop song (CLON), Kim Hakseok sang without a karaoke music track. Honestly his timing and general ability was severely hampered by alcohol. The other three of us had to do back-up dance. That was HARD. He was singing a traditional song, but without any adherence to a beat. At least one Yangju friend (김순홍 Kim Sunhong who is their seamstress extraordinaire) and one Goseong friend (이재 훈 Yi Jaehun with the long hair) got up and helped us out. I have a lot of observations on the behavior of the groups and various dynamics I observed, but some are not so flattering so I’ll keep those off the public blog.

Kim Myeongha dropped me at a subway station. Everyone else (except Kim Myeongha and I and whoever had left already) were going to spend all night partying in the hostel Goseong had secured, and I was invited, but Karjam would have blown a gasket if I’d even mentioned it. I know it would have really helped my long term relationship especially with Goseong Ogwangdae people, but I cannot neglect Karjam that much and he does feel very traditionally about his wife staying out even as late as I did.

Yangju Byeolsandae in Andong

October 1st, 2010
In the morning Karjam and I checked out most of the booths we hadn’t seen yet, I was interviewed again, we watched Desang, Koong and Iwan perform, then 양주별산대 Yangju Byeolsandae. I distributed my surveys and got back 19 after their performance. Yangju Byeolsandae performed different scenes, the performance was good, but after the excellent explanations during the 동래야류 Dongnae Yayu performance the absence of any kind of explanation during the Yangju performance was even more obvious. They had distributed some pamphlets at the back, but I think not many, and since they didn’t explain which scene they were going to perform, the scene by scene explanations still would require some effort to read through in order for people to be cued in even the three or four sentence worth that the pamphlet provided for each scene. Karjam watched the Mexican performance team while I went to greet and congratulate the Yangju folks, who were quite pleased I’d shown up.

Photos: Iwan is from Java Indonesia, Desang is from Bhutan, and Koong is from Thailand



Photos of Yangju Byeolsandae:

Gyeongbok Palace and a Performance at the Gugakwon

September 23rd, 2010

Georgy came to Seoul and after some tea and snacks we headed out for a full day, all three of us in Korean modernized-peasant clothes, or 개량한복 Gaeryang Hanbok. I planned for us to hit the palace we’d chosen (경복궁 Gyeongbok Palace) and then go to the 한옥마울 Hanok Village on 남산 Namsan before the performances at the 국악원 Gukakwon (National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts), but we never made it to the second location. We first walked slowly through the new public space on 세종로 Sejong Road leading to 광화문 Gwanghwamun, the gate for Gyeongbok Palace. None of us had been there before and we looked closely at the timeline and Karjam took a lot of video footage of everything. The timeline of the 조선왕조 Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) and current era is carved in stone blocks, with water running over them.


At last we got to the palace, the line to buy tickets was a million miles long, but since we were all in hanbok, of course we got in for free without waiting in line. Things continued to take forever as Karjam found lots of video-graphic interest. Georgy and I chatted and waited until we were all three very hungry, but when we got out of the palace I realized we were right by Aniko’s house and Georgy hadn’t seen her since the wedding, so we stopped in for a few minutes and some juice before meeting Scott, a former co-worker and his lovely wife, 은미Eunmi.

For me the entire holiday had been building up to the performance that evening at the Gugakwon, so I was pretty happy all day. Unfortunately we arrived only twenty minutes before the show and had less than perfect seats, but they were still free (so many traditional performances are free) and we were even given a survey (an example for me as I make mine!) and a hot slab of 떡 ddeok with our program! The show began with 양주별산대 Yangju Byeolsandae performing the same piece I’d seen at 서울놀이마당 Seoul Nolimadang. Next was 발탈Baltal, or foot-mask, a mixed comedy and puppet show. The two women who performed were very good, but the show relied on comprehension of their banter and singing, and Georgy’s brow was furrowed with the effort to keep up. I suspect much of the audience didn’t get all the jokes, but the Korean was not too colloquial/dialectical, so it was easier to understand than the mask dance drama had been. The rest of the evening included 사물놀이 samulnoli, 풍물 판 굿 pungmul, various acrobatic and trick shows, 줄타기 tight-rope, and so on. Overall the show was great, we were a tiny bit cold but snuggled together, the other audience members were having a great time, and we were in good company, still I found the set-up at the Gukakwon very divisive, the audience can’t interact with the performers (readily) and the barrier there is quite artificial (and modern), and I felt kept the energy level down from where it could have been. The stage is down in front of the audience (in tiered permanent step/bench seating) is above, but there is a wall between the audience and the first seats so that the eyes of the closest audience member are about 8 feet above the stage and at least 8 feet back (because of the walkway between stage and wall, and the walkway in front of the seats of the first row). There was some light on the audience, so the performers might have been able to see us, except that there were bright lights shining in their eyes to the degree that when they stopped to address the audience (it happened a couple times) they shaded their eyes with their hand.

There was no announcer and most of the show happened with out any introduction, although one dominant older performer did address the audience several times. The program had some information, but purely factual and standard, nothing engaging, deep or unusual.

A Visit to the Yangju Byeolsandae Complex

September 8th, 2010
Originally we were scheduled to visit 양주별산대 Yangju Byeolsandae at lunch time, however the schedule was changed to 3pm, making my housewarming party on Wednesday suddenly seem like a bad idea.

I met Kathy and we took the long subway ride out to Yangju, where the 회장님 Director of the troupe met us at the station and drove us to their center, it would have been more than a ten minute walk on country roads, we were not in the city anymore! The facility was amazing, totally worthy of envy. Their stage was large, the seating spacious, with a central 마당 madang and a raised stage (so they could incorporate different sorts of performances), and a roof made appropriately for sound quality (not like the roof at Seoul Noli Madang). This theatre was attached to a building with central lobby, offices (multiple full time office workers!), a practice room (large, high ceilings!), and upstairs we were told there was a VIP reception area. The rest of the facility included a dorm with kitchen for visiting college clubs and what not, a school for traditional arts/Yangju Byeolsandae teaching programs (hosting over 14,000 students between now and the end of December in various programs!) and an exhibition hall with old masks, the earliest photos, a time line of the art, certification documents from when they become certified as a national intangible cultural asset and similar items. The Human Treasure met us in the office and we sat with one of the staff members the director and the Human Treasure and I helped Kathy make her plea for items for her exhibition. Then we went to the practice room, it turns out they have these wooden practice masks, that really from the front are identical to the traditional masks. They were willing to loan (free of charge) two to Kathy, and sold her a top and a belt that would go with one of them (for a reasonable price). Later they will forward some photos that show both characters together in costume in performance, but the costume of the second character was much too expensive to consider lending, usually it costs around 1,500 USD to make one. This was amazing good fortune for Kathy for her exhibition and she was very pleased as we returned to Seoul.

I rushed to buy some things and prepare for my housewarming, arriving home at the same time as the first guest (who was early). The guests were 지수 Jisu, 경호 Gyeongho, 경진 Gyeongjin, 현경 Hyeon'gyeong (Hyun from UCLA Musicology), Ian, Aniko and 회정 Hoijeong. After we’d finally eaten dinner (Jisu helped a lot, since I was so late to start cooking) my landlady also came upstairs and joined us as we ate fruit and drank juice and cold tea. It was a really fun time, I am so lucky to have so many amazing friends (all swear they spent less than 10,000 won on presents but I now have lots of fabric softener, fruit, a new towel and a big Starbucks mug).

Photos by Karjam

Yangju Byeolsandae

September 6th, 2010
We went to a performance at the Seoul Noli Madang (the home of 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli). Karjam is getting so used to the route; I think he could almost find his way there on his own. It was raining torrentially and during the first of the two groups to perform, the National (Korean) Dance Company, there was thunder that sounded like it was directly on top of the 마당 madang (performance area). It actually momentarily drowned out the completely chintzy music with some of the dance pieces, a fact for which I was grateful. The company seemed to use the opportunity to perform to showcase everything that was not exactly traditional dance. Okay, that’s not quite true, there was a very lovely dance by five men that was –perhaps- not contemporized. But I’m not making any bets, partially because I was so busy taking photos I didn’t bother to really analyze the movements. There was another dance, by a man and a woman to the 사랑가 Sarang-ga from 춘향가 Chunhyangga, imagine Romeo and Juliet as an opera and a dance to the sound of them declaring their love for each other and you’re on the right track (except it was recorded music not live). Again, although it used traditional-esque costumes and dance vocabulary, it was not exactly part of the canon. Hmmm… part of the canon. A potential way to clarify what is meant by traditional dance/performance?

The reason we were there was the second part, a mask dance presentation by 양주별산대 Yangju Byeolsandae, but as a special treat (for mask dance aficionados like myself, Kathy who was also there and of course the significant attendance by the Songpa folks (김영숙, 이수환, 김명하, 탄종원 and one other guy whose name I can’t remember) the National Dance Company presented one excerpt from 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum, again, it was stylized and “upgraded” for the audience—I will have to ask the folks at the Bongsan Talchum Preservation Association how they feel about that.

The Yangju Byeolsandae (the closest mask dance to Songpa’s dance) presentation was very interesting. Many of the motions used are the same and the two acts they presented (one long, one normal length) seemed a bit like a jumble of the story in Songpa. The interesting thing that I picked out was how dynamic it was that in the beginning of Act 3 (which they started with) a group of about six players in costumes with 풍물 pungmul instruments marched onto stage (except the novice monk had the cymbals which are not Pungmul instruments but are Buddhist instruments) followed by a couple more dancing characters. Then from within those people most of the characters for the scene appeared (and the rest of them faded off stage at some point, without being noticed by me). It was very dynamic, both because of the sounds of the music, and because of the colorfully clothed/masked players. They did a good job with the acts, too. I will need to go back and re-watch the video of the introductions (by the professional guy who is employed by the Noli Madang), that’s part of what I want to analyze for my research, but during intros everyone wants to socialize with each other, not listen, so I couldn’t pay attention. Fortunately Karjam still recorded them, at my request.

Photos with Karjam and Professor Kathy Foley courtesy of 이수환 Yi Suhwan, who insists I should start calling him 오빠 (big brother).



In the evening we went to e-mart again and I think I should schedule a little house-warming party! The oddest purchase was we finally got a little lamp (our overhead lights are bright, which is nice, but they’re BLINDING) with the Korean script pattern on it and (I’m not kidding) it was mounted upside down. Seriously. There is no way for us to fix it. I don’t know if we should ask for our money back or just laugh about it.