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

April 23^rd, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

April 24^th, 2011

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

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

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

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.