Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
Nat'l Theater to unveil free online lectures on traditional performing arts
Seen is a still image from the National Theater of Korea (NTOK) lecture series “Let's Gugak” on YouTube. Courtesy of NTOK
By Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
The National Theater of Korea (NTOK) will unveil its lecture video series “Let's Gugak II” on YouTube in three foreign languages on Aug. 12, as part of its efforts to promote the Korean traditional performing arts to non-Koreans.
As a follow-up to the first “Let's Gugak” series released in January, the NTOK will release a video each Thursday for nine weeks in three different categories of traditional performing arts: samul-janggu (hourglass-shaped drum), pansori (traditional narrative vocal style) and Korean traditional dance. In each video, the members of the NTOK and experts will provide basic and practice videos of each traditional art form with English, Chinese and Japanese subtitles. The first batch of nine videos from January had subtitles in English only.
In samul-janggu, viewers can learn how to read a score and about the onomatopoeic words for rhythms as well as how to use drumsticks. In pansori, viewers can learn how to sing “Sarangga,” a love song from “Chunhyangga,” one of five remaining original works from the pansori repertory. In Korean traditional dance, viewers can learn basic movements of dance forms.
The NTOK consists of three traditional performing art troupes ― the National Changgeuk Company of Korea, the National Dance Company of Korea and the National Orchestra of Korea. Since 2013, they have been providing an offline lecture series titled “Traditional Performing Arts Academy for Foreigners,” which teaches various traditional performing art forms to foreign residents in Korea at the theater. About 100 foreign residents participated in the program every year, but due to the spread of COVID-19, the offline program has been halted.
Instead, it has been filming and releasing the lessons through its YouTube channel since January.