Dance in Korea

I hate mimes. They're like clowns, who freak me out. Nevertheless, if you like mimes or miming, you'll like this festival.

Chuncheon International Mime Festival
Date: May 27 – June 3
Venue: Mime House, Chuncheon Culture and Arts Center, Chuncheon Puppet Theater, and Dokkaebi Island in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do

The Chuncheon International Mime Festival is the leading performing arts festival in Korea, and its fame has now
spread across the globe. Each year, renowned artists from home and abroad give outstanding mime performances at this festival. In fact, the event is so popular that there aren’t enough performance tickets to go around. Performances are held all day long during the weekend of the festival period, giving even fulltime workers the chance to relax and forget the worries of their week.

Event Programs: The Chuncheon International Mime Festival offers a number of performances, workshops where visitors can learn mime techniques from experts, and a conference. Numerous mime programs are planned, including performances by officially invited mime artists from home and abroad; “AsiaNow” (active all over Asia)
with participants from Japan, Hong Kong, and Korea; “guerilla performances”; and performances geared to children. These performances will be held in downtown Chuncheon, as well as at the Chuncheon Mime House, Culture and Arts Center, Bomnae Theatre, and other locations. Dokkaebi Nanjang, a unique program of the festival, will be held throughout the weekend at Goseumdochi Island and Chuncheon Puppet Theater. Dokkaebi Nanjang consists of
various indoor and outdoor performances, including mime, music, dance, and cultural performances in addition to the Korean shamanic ritual - gut. Even complete strangers enjoy each other’s company in the exciting atmosphere of Dokkaebi Nanjang, making the program highly popular among young people. Don’t forget to reserve tickets
for this program as soon as possible since they sell out fast.

Major Highlights: The highlight of the Chuncheon International Mime Festival is undoubtedly the opening ceremony held on the streets of Myeongdong, in Chuncheon. Mime artists from all over the world dazzle the crowds with their spectacular street performances. So whether you are walking with your friends, family, that “special someone” or just by yourself, don’t miss out on this special opportunity to enjoy free performances. The finale which continues late into the night is especially unforgettable, with artists and visitors parading through the streets arm in arm. It is therefore recommended that you reserve lodging near Myeongdong. For more information, visit
http://www.mimefestival.com (English).

How to get there: Take a train to South Chuncheon from the Cheongnyangni Train Station (subway line no. 1) (19 trains run every day from 6:15 am to 10:20 pm / Time: 1 hour 53 minutes / Fare: 5,000 won) → Get off at South Chuncheon Station and take a cab → Rides take around 10 minutes to each theater / Fare is around 5,000 won.

B-boying, or breakdancing is really popular here. As such, the b-boys here are good. Really good. So it is no surprise that Korea is hosting the World B-Boy Championship from June 1 to 3 here in Seoul. Unfortunately, the coolness of this event is marred by a really lame name, "R-16 Korea Sparkling." Huh? "Korea, Sparkling" is the lamest tourism catchphrase to ever be invented. Seriously. They should have run it by some foreign tourists first before promoting it and took to heart the resultant guffaws emanating from the tourists as a foreboding sign of a really bad catchphrase. Sorry. On with the event...

The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Korea Tourism Organization have announced that they will jointly hold the World B-Boy Championship in Seoul from June 1 to 3, 2007.

This event is designed to promote "B-Boy" to the international community. "B-Boy" stands for "breakdancing boys/girls" and is gaining great popularity among Asian countries in the form of Hallyu, or the "Korean Wave."

The championship is expected to be a global b-boy competition, and be comparable to the world's major events, such as the "Battle Of The Year" in Germany, the "Free Style Session" in the United States, the "Red Bull BC One" in the United States and Brazil, and the "UK B-boy Championship" in the United Kingdom.

The championship dubbed as "R-16, Korea sparkling, Seoul" ("R" means 'Respect,' 'Ranking,' and 'Revolution' regarded as the best praises among B-Boys/Girls) will be held in Jamsil Gymnasium on June 1 and 2.

B-boy master teams with standings in the first to 16th places in the world rankings will participate in and compete for the best in the categories of "performance" and "battle." They will include "Vagabonds" from France, the winner of the Battle Of The Year 2006, "Massive Monkees" from the United States, and "Mortal Combat" from Japan.

Along with the competition, various cultural events will also be organized. Special performances by Korean pop stars and participating B-boys will be presented at Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul City Hall on June 3, and the "Graffiti Festival" is scheduled to take place before and after the competitions in Jamsil Gymnasium and around the Cheonggyecheon area in downtown Seoul.

Genre	Non-verbal Performance
Showing	June 1-2, 2007
Location	Jamsil Stadium
Performance time	June 1, 2007 - 19:30 June 2, 2007 - 18:00
Ticket Prices	W10,000 per 1 ticket W15,000 per 2 tickets

Website: http://r16korea.com

Eeek. Well I sure have been absent lately. School, family, and work pressures have all interfered with my updates. But that's life isn't it? Enough with the excuses and on with the news...

The International Modern Dance Festival or MODAFE kicks off its two-week run from June 1 to 12 at Arko Arts Center and Mary Hall at Sogang University in Seoul. MODAFE is an annual festival that draws big names in contemporary dance from around the world. The avant-garde dance festival includes major artists such as French choreographer Josef Nadj, Benoit Lachambre of Canada and Takao Kawaguchi from Japan. It also includes world-renowned Zoo Dance Company and experimental duo Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion from the United Kingdom.

Under the theme of 'Dance Vista' - Body, Philosophy, Movement, Live - the festival will offer 21 performances including productions from foreign artists, co-productions from multinational artists and domestic productions.

"The world dance market, after repeated experiments on the limitation of dancing, is now focusing on the origin of dancing, 'movement and philosophy,' which means acting, thinking, living and rejoicing," said Ban Ju-eun, the PR director of MODAFE during a news conference Wednesday in Daehangno, downtown Seoul.

For the opening, the festival invites France's Josef Nadj's "Le Poussiere de Soleils (Sun's dust)," grotesque and magical piece that add dramatic elements to choreography. The show premiered at the Avignon Festival of France in 2004, and has garnered international acclaim so far for its unique and quizzical story narrated through body and movements.

Jonathan Burrows, a dancer, and Matteo Fargion, a musician, will collaborate with their creation "Both Sitting Duet," to present an outstanding performance.

Benoit Lachambre of Canada, dubbed as one of the most respectable choreographers in Europe, stages "Delire Defait," showing delirium, a state of madness, through dance, installation and self-portraiture.

The festival also includes collaboration productions by dancers from different countries to allow them an opportunity to share artistic talents and vision.

Kim Hee-Jin from Korea and Ludovic Galvan from France are scheduled to perform "Memory Cell" together while Kim Sung-Yong and dancers from Japan will stage "Don't (with shadow)" on June 4 at Arko Arts Center.

Ticket prices are 20,000 won to 90,000 won (discounted ticket packages are available). Visit www.modafe.org or call (02) 765-5352 for more information and a complete schedule of each performance.

(Source: The Korea Herald)

I tend to be really ambitious. Meaning that when I really get into something, I really get into it. Meaning that I will want to do it above everything else.

Such is my attitude for dance. If it were up to me, I'd be taking dance classes everyday of the week (except for Sunday of course). But alas, there are only so many hours in the day, and I only have so much energy to put towards other things.

On Monday, partly because it was cold (and rainy), and partly because I was tired, I skipped my dance class for the evening. I felt really guilty about it at the time, and my dad commenting that I'd been looking rather bloated lately didn't help either.

So even though I hadn't really exercised since Friday (I usually have some type of exercise activity everyday of the week), I was surprised at how my body responded when I showed up again for class today.

I was more flexible and I had more energy. I actually felt my muscles stretch and hurt pleasantly during warmup. I whizzed through warmup actually, which isn't to say that I didn't get anything out of it. Instead of tiring me out, the warmup energized me.

Last week, before the studio fire occurred, I was feeling quite the opposite. I was dragging through my warmup and internally complaining. In fact, I even didn't want to show up for class (which is probably why I didn't on Monday).

So what happened? I now realize that my body was telling me to take a break. I've been having too much of that
"work, work, work" attitude. I want to become a better dancer, so I naturally I want to work on it everyday. But sometimes not working is working. Moral of the story: Take a break!

I saw this while ahem job searching and since it's relevant to my blog, I thought I would post it. I have no idea where Daehangno is though, or I would go and see it.

SOURCE: http://www.englishkong.com/bbs/bbs_view.php?bbsID=LOOW_004&num=130

Shows in Daehangno are of course in Korean. The theaters are numerous and shows here are often first runs but a successful show will often be picked up by a larger theater where it go on to do great things. If language is a problem why not catch a performance of "Sa Choom"? It is a spirited non-verbal dance performance. I attended a show last week and would rather say that instead of "Love Dance" "Sa Choom" loosely means "Love to Dance" as these performers certainly did. This dance musical combines various dance genres such as hip-hop, jazz, techno, break dance, pop dance, modern ballet and more. The performers themselves obviously love to dance and want to pass some of that enthusiasm on to the audience. You are reassured at the beginning via a slide show (in Korean, English and Japanese) that clapping, dancing and making noise are all more than allowed; your mobile phone need not be turned off and that audience participation is a must. The musical tells the story of three friends from birth to adulthood. It is playing in the Theater Egg and Nucleus/Algwahaek Theater. Exit 2 from Hyewha Station, Line 4. Walk straight ahead and take the first left after Maronier Park. The theater is located on the corner of the first street on your left. Tickets are W45,000. For more information call: 02-2128-7616 or www.lovedance.co.kr.

I headed over to Nike.com to look up info about my new Nike + iPod accessory and somehow ended up on the Nike Women's site, where I was pleasantly surprised to see that Nike has finally embraced dance!

I've never been a huge fan of Nike (or its competitor Adidas) or actually, any of those sport clothing companies, mostly because of their overpriced merchandise and the fact that I am not a participant of the sports they like to sponsor (e.g., basketball, football, golf, soccer, etc.).

But I am really pleased that Nike has realized that dance is an activity worthy of attention. The Nike Women splash page now has a selection of dance workouts and that one can watch and even learn through a series of clips that break down the moves for you.

I took Nike's dance personality quiz and apparently I am an "All Star" of which only 6% of Nike Women are. I'm not quite sure what the definition of "All Star" is though, although I suppose it has something to do with my dance name of "Energetic Shaker" supplied by Nike. Whatever...anyway at the end of your quiz you get to watch a dance clip of your type of movement.

Anyway if you are a dancer or just like to dance, I highly suggest you check out the Nike Women website. There's plenty of material to keep you entertained; Lord knows that I sure was sucked in.

Oh, and did I mention that Nike now makes dance sneakers? I want a pair (or two now). They actually look like street shoes - if  you've ever seen a  "real" dance sneaker you'll notice that they are funny looking because of the high arch, but the new Nikes are low profile and seem quite suitable for everyday wear...in case you want to break out into a move or two on the street.

And the prices seem reasonable (more or less around the average of what dance sneakers tend to cost), unlike their running shoes which always make me want to laugh and cry and the same time when I see the price tag....

Perhaps I'll post a review on one of these later...