Kim Yongcheol's Dance Performance

April 29^th, 2011

On Friday I went to meet Prof. Hilary Finchum-Sung for lunch and good solid academic discussion. She had tons of awesome advice to help me with nuts and bolts of this dissertation project. Actually some of it was being reminded of things I know but others were rather scary. They made me feel as though I have much more still to do than I thought I did and a bit of panic is setting in, particularly since what with mom here (and our packed schedule) and various other confluences of events (like the high concentration of performances in the spring) I have gotten very little writing done lately.

In the evening Karjam and I went to see 김용천 Kim Yongcheol (from my Bongsan Talchum class)'s dance performance. It was actually a concert with a total of 5 pieces—one Japanese, one Chinese and three Korean. The first Korean piece, the Japanese butoh piece and Yongcheol's piece were good, the other two were pretty lame. Yongcheol's piece has three primary dancers, 병호 and 정현 plus a guy I only met once. They were all in dresses, but 정현's character was still a male character. In addition there were about 9 other dancers, including Yongcheol, 산산, 윤희, and허세준. It was pretty amusing and I took a few photos though we were seated so far back in the hall I wished I'd had something other than my 50mm fixed lens. I'm spoiled by small halls like KOUS and Pungryu Geukjang. The dancers used 한삼 hansam (sleeve extensions) and some Bongsan Talchum motions, but it was far enough away from Bongsan Talchum that I think most people wouldn't have felt it was at all derivative. 

Guest Lecture about Korean Mask Dances

November 17th, 2010
Wednesday is my day off, but when scheduling a time to have a drumming lesson with 이연순 Yi Yeonsun it was the only day that worked. So in the afternoon I went to meet her at a community center where she’d just ended a class. The idea was that we could keep using the room. Unfortunately, someone else had scheduled use of the room and she didn’t find out until during her class when they came to set up. She called me but I was already on my way, so we agree to meet and talk. I ended up interviewing her for 2 hours. No exaggeration, more than 2 hours of conversation was recorded. It was an amazing interview, only something possible because I’ve proven my interest, knowledge and discretion. The contents of the interview would be much less interesting to you than to me, and much of it will need to be kept confidential, but most importantly she gave me a good foundation for other interviews and some real honest feedback on how performances are being protected for future generations.

In the evening Karjam and I went on a quick trip to a 국악사 traditional musical instrument shop where I picked up two more 한삼 hansam to use with my Thursday guest lecture. Then we romantically strolled by the lantern exhibit set up in 청계천 Cheonggae Stream.

Cell phone photo of a sangmo wearing sogo playing lantern-guy:


November 18th, 2010
This morning Professor Hilary Finchum-Sung’s class was on 풍물 pungmul for the first half, a subject I already know a lot about, obviously. I brought my 열두발 yeoldubal and 상모 sangmo and two 소고 sogo so the students could try them during the break time. Then I got to do a guest lecture on mask dance dramas for the second half of the class, which was a really awesome opportunity, I’m so grateful I had that chance (even just thinking about it while preparing was great for me, since I’ve never had a chance to do a short lecture on mask dances). I used a PowerPoint and the video on release through laughter in the mask dances dramas that I referred to making a couple days ago. After answering their questions (more than an average of two questions each) I handed out my hansam and taught them some motions. It went really well, except I wasn’t happy with how thin and nasal my voice sounded, and I answered some questions in an unnecessarily drawn out manner (if I’d only thought it through first…). Karjam came and filmed the entire thing.

After class Hilary bought us lunch, then Karjam and I went to the National Museum of Korea to see the special exhibition of Goryeo Dynasty Buddhist paintings. The paintings were really impressive, but the exhibit lights were too low and even on a Thursday afternoon it was much too crowded for my tastes. We rushed home and I left again ten minutes later to go to my new class.

My second class at 봉천놀이마당 Bongcheon Noli Madang went well. Up until about 2003 Yeonsun was a member, she’d been with the group for many years, and it turned out that the woman, 미경 Migyeong, who got Karjam and I free tickets to the dance performance a while back was there this evening, and the conversation with her uncovered the fact that the announcer that evening had been 지원 Jiwon, one of the key members and the drumming instructor for the group. 장미이 Jang Mi’i talks constantly as she teaches, explaining each motion, and its meaning, and then again and again as we repeat. She is either talking or counting out loud at all times. I find this a bit hard to take, and want to concentrate more on the motion and don’t need each fine detail of the motion explained to me, I’d rather do it three times instead of once with talking, at which point I would expect to be doing it properly based on watching carefully. Maybe it’s just because Korean isn’t my native language so paying attention to what is said may be more distracting for me than it is for most people. The others had learned a fair stretch of the choreographed basic motion set on Tuesday, I had to catch up and learn the new set of motions, but it was fun. Someday I may be good at 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae. We had 8 participants (a much more manageable sized group) including Jang Mi’i, Jiwon who did our drumming and 김선우 Kim Seonu who is the go-to office, drummer, secondary dance instructor sort of person. I also found out that she’s only a year younger than me, which is surprising; she comes off as still in her 20s. After class ended we sat in a circle, evaluated class (while Seonu made notes) and had hot tea and cookies and other snacks.

Bongsan Talchum with an Ear Ache

November 15th, 2010
I felt mostly better during the day at home, so I decided I simply couldn’t have four days without active research (I was still trying to deal with photos and videos and the upcoming powerpoint and revise some interview questions despite the pain in my head, but I felt like I was having too much time off).

I headed out to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class, and immediately started to feel intense pain in my head again. By the time I was halfway there I knew I wouldn’t be dancing (although I had my 한삼 hansam, 미투리 mituri slippers, loose pants and a t-shirt). It was intense. When I got to the office I just wanted to crawl into a dark hole and stay there. Instead I went to the practice room, sat next to 김은주 Kim Eunju and wrote notes about what I was seeing. I made notes about how individual students were doing, something I usually only see incidentally, some are so stiff, others are quite good. Kim Eunju spent quite a bit of time firming up the pronunciation and enunciation of the new monologues we learned while 장용일 Jang Yongil was running class. “If you don’t say it precisely, no one will hear you through the mask.” She pointed out (several times in different ways). During breaks Kim Eunju would talk and joke and make people who were late doing the basic exercises, unlike Jang who would mostly just sit and wait for everyone to take their break. Kim Eunju asked for more hansam movement during monk 4’s part, and worked with everyone on the final part where we all dance our own solos for 10 jangdan at the same time as the others dance something different, then do a collective dance at the end. She also reviewed the 사자춤 sajachum with us.

I felt horrible on the walk back to the subway, almost like I was caught in slow-motion where every moment was painful, but after I got home and warmed up I started to feel better. I went to bed happy because my ear has started to express large amounts of goop. I think that’s a sign of healing. I want to believe it is.

I finally made an excerpt video of Bongsan Talchum from the festival, it’s uploaded here: link.

Cell photos: Kim Eunju (pink shirt) demonstrates while the class watches, and the class practicing.

Bukcheong Saja Noleum Performance

October 8th, 2010
My morning Seoul National University class was even better than before. The professor is sometimes a little off the mark (as in her understanding of Korean history has been understandably colored by being trained only in Korea by in many cases nationalistic scholars), but she’s super knowledgeable, and I enjoy talking with her. The problem is that the rest of the students are half asleep and say NOTHING. Actually some are only occasionally awake (at least no one snored). If they engaged with the material I’d believe they were in graduate school, seriously, it’s embarrassing. This was a problem during my MA at Yonsei, too. Do they expect information to be spoon-fed to them? The passivity of learning is just phenomenal.

I took a nap in the afternoon and then went to the performance of 북청사자놀음 Bukcheong Saja Noleum in 풍류극장 Pungryu Theatre, which is on the first floor of the Intangible Cultural Properties Training Center that houses both Bukcheong and Bongsan Talchum among other arts. I paid for a ticket, despite knowing how to get in for free (and knowing that no one would challenge my right to be there), because I feel bad about the situation that’s cropped up. This year they decided to charge 5,000 per ticket but they didn’t do any extra advertising and last year’s standing room almost non-existent has become this year a half empty theatre (and it’s a small theatre).

The performance was awesome, Bukcheong is so different from the other mask dance dramas. I actually wrote detailed notes, in abridged form:
The performance began with a short, educational but fairly general intro by the theatre staff. Then most of the dancers danced in and out again after circling the stage. At last the Yangban is dragged onto stage by his servant, they talk and the Yangban says to bring music, so the servant calls the musicians onto stage.
The musicians were on 징jing (one person) and 북 buk (one person) and 통소 tongso (four people). They stood to the back and side of the stage, they do not wear masks (like 양주별산대) or flower hats (like 풍물 pungmul performers wear), but have exposed faces, a headband (of the type worn under a mask) and exposed heads. Next the Yangban wants dancers and 한삼 hansam (sleeve extension) dancers come out (exposed faces but wearing hoods), then knife dancers (exposed faced men with no hoods, 지훈 Jihoon was the leader of the two and cued the other guy as to what to do). Next two 소고 sogo dancers (both in men’s clothing, although they were women) and two older women in hoods and hanbok with 한삼 hansam came out. The following act was Jihoon and his partner back again with the two little children dancing on their shoulders. This was followed by the dance of the physically retarded hunch-backed woman (how would that ever go over in the US?), one of the highlights and one of the only other masked characters. After another dance by the married women in 한복 hanbok and hoods the lions finally come out. The lions were great, after the lion who ate the rabbit gets sick a monk chants for him and an acupuncturist comes out with needles (metal chopsticks). There was a final bow and then they taught the lion dance to anyone who wanted to learn, I did and go to dance the backside of the lion (manipulating the tail). The costume wasn’t as heavy or uncomfortable as I had worried it would be.

Photo- actually from Andong, but this is one of the same lions!