Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Intl modern dance contest opens Wednesday

Organizers aim to grant male dancers military exemption By Lee Hyo-won The Korea International Modern Dance Competition (KIMDC) opens Wednesday in Seoul for a weeklong run until June 28. A rare showcase for the genre not only in Korea but also in the rest of the world, the KIMDC opens its second edition featuring dancers from 11 different countries. While there are many competitions for ballet or a mix of the traditional dance with a section for modern/contemporary dance, this particular competition is the only sizeable event for modern dance. Korean male dancers become exempt from the mandatory two-year military service if they win the first or second prize in an international dance event. For modern dancers, the Military Manpower Administration recognizes feats in overseas competitions such as the Orhid in Greece. This year alone a total of 25 Korean males will vie for prizes there in July, according to Kim Bock-hee, president of the Dance Association of Korea, who is overseeing the KIMDC. Organizers say they are trying to gain recognition from the government

Jun 20, 2011

Pasca pours Rain on stage

By Kwon Mee-yoo Cirque Eloize’s “Rain” returns to Korea after five years with water actually teeming on to the stage. The show revolves around a couple in a theater during a circus rehearsal and realism blends with fiction and bossa nova music. “Rain” is known for its final scene, when gallons of water pour from the ceiling for 10 minutes. Eleven actors run, dabble, play with balls and jump rope as if they were children playing in the rain. Daniele Finzi Pasca, director of the circus, said he started to build the show from the last scene, via an email interview with The Korea Times. “It is an image recurring to my shows. It was not the first time it rained in my show and will not be the last,” Finzi Pasca said. “I love to drop things from the sky and it is a kind of obsession. Every time I look up to the sky, I always wait for something to be thrown by God, something that will surprise me.” His attachment to the sky led to the creation of the Sky Trilogy with Cirque Eloize — “Nomade,” “Rain” and “Nebbia.” “Rain” is a show dedicated to freedom, the

Jun 20, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo

Everyday objects turn into art

By Kwon Mee-yoo Explore the quintessence of American contemporary art from New York Dada to pop art and postmodernism at “The American Art: Masterpieces of Everyday Life from the Whitney Museum of American Art,” which is underway at the National Museum of Art in Deoksugung, a branch of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (MOCA), in central Seoul. As American art is not so familiar to the Korean audience, the exhibition is designed to introduce not only American art but American culture in general. Bringing in the masterpieces The Whitney Museum of American Art provided 87 works by 47 artists, including Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein and Dan Flavin, for this exhibition. Established in 1931, the Whitney is dedicated to American art. Unlike other celebrated contemporary art museums like The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney has a broad collection of works only by American artists in any form and produced after the 20th century. It took some five days to bring in the artworks and install them in the Seoul museum. Around 20 people

Jun 17, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo

Clubs, art exhibitions & sports games

Clubs Underlounge Seoul Hongdae or Hongik University Area This is the local club of a hip Japanese chain that also has a branch in Shanghai. Located in the famous clubbing area, Hongdae, it’s all flashy with loud music and lights. Spacious, with a supersized crystal ball hanging over your head, DJs from near and far make music while you can hang out at the bar or classy private rooms. Located near the main entrance of Hongik Univ. Call (02) 325-5715 or visit www.underlounge.kr. Club M2 Hongdae M2 features top DJs from home and abroad. The dance floor and the DJ are in the center of the club, which attracts a trendy crowd along with models and celebrities. Packed on the weekends. Visit www.ohoo.net. Club Volume Itaewon Located in the Crown Hotel near Noksapyeong subway station Club Volume offers the finest venue for specially themed weekly events and talented international DJs for unforgetable nights of dancing and debauchery. Reborn after extensive renovations to maintain its reputation of a quality club with a superior sound system, luxurious setting and st

Jun 16, 2011

Concerts, museums & theater

Classical concerts The Four Cellists Busan Citizen’s Hall, Keimyung Art Center, Seoul Arts Center* June 24-26 Four cellists, Korea’s Young Song (Song Young-hoon), China’s Li-Wei, Switzerland’s Joel Marosi and Sweden’s Claes Gunnarsson, will tour Busan (June 24), Daegu (June 25) and Seoul (June 26). The virtuosos will perform not only standard classics but also tango and contemporary pieces featured on film soundtracks. Tickets cost 33,000 to 100,000 won. For more information call (02) 2658-3546. Bolshoi Theatre Soloists Gala Concert Seoul Arts Center* July 1 An opera gala will be held featuring soloists of Moscow’s famed Bolshoi Theatre; soprano Lolitta Semenina, mezzo-soprano Svetlana Shilova, tenor Oleg Dolgov and bass Mikhail Kazakov. The Russian theater’s conductor-in-residence Pavel Sorokin will conduct the Prime Philharmonic Orchestra in staple operatic arias as well as Korean and Russian folk songs. Tickets cost 50,000 to 130,000 won. For more information call (02)-2650-7481. Arts Meet Opera Chungmu Art Hall June 21 A special opera gala will bring artis

Jun 16, 2011

200-Pound Beauty to star Karas leader Park

By Park Sung-hee The local movie-turned-musical “200-Pound Beauty” will star five-member girl group Kara’s leader, Park Gyu-ri, as the main character. The musical will start an Asia tour in Osaka, Japan in October and make its way back to Korea in November at the newly opening CJ Art Center. Based on the hit film that attracted an audience of more than 6.6 million in 2006, “200-Pound Beauty” made its debut as a musical in 2008. It received rave reviews from critics as well as great amount of attention from audience, selling around 1,500 tickets daily. Park will perform as Gang Han-byeol, the protagonist of the musical who is a secret vocalist for Ammy, a famous pop singer who actually lip syncs as she cannot sing. As Han-byeol is overweight and suffers from self-esteem issues, she is behind all of Ammyperformances singing and recording all her songs. When Han-byeol overhears that she is merely being used by her secret crush and music producer, Sang-jun, she decides to undergo massive plastic surgery. The procedure is successful and Han-byeol returns with an incredibly dif

Jun 15, 2011

New national art museum to open in Seoul in 2013

By Kwon Mee-yoo Construction of the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) began in Sogyeok-dong, central Seoul, Wednesday. It is being built on the site of the former headquarters of the Defense Security Command and Armed Forces Seoul District Hospital, next to Gyeongbok Palace. The museum is scheduled to open in 2013. A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the site that formerly housed the headquarters of the Defense Security Command. Some 600 guests, including French Ambassador to Korea Elisabeth Laurin and Spanish Ambassador to Korea Luis Arias Romero, attended the event. “The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul is going to be a world-scale museum, communicating internationally through modern art and making a creative contribution to national growth,” Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Chung Byoung-gug said at the ceremony. Mihn Hyun-jun of mp_Art Architect and Siaplan have designed the facility. The new museum will be built on some 27,000 square meters site, with three stories below and three above ground. The building will b

Jun 15, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo

Lee Ja-ram experiments with pansori at Ukchuk-ga

By Kwon Mee-yoo A little woman in her 30s stands on stage of “Ukchuk-ga” dressed in a lacy blouse, purple modernized hanbok dress with reversible skirt and combat boots. When she sticks a wooden spoon into her chignon, she becomes Kim Sun-jeong, a tough woman who survives the hardships of war with her three children. She is Lee Ja-ram, 32, a renowned “pansori” (Korean traditional narrative music) singer. She entered the world of pansori in 1990 when she was 12. She holds the record of the youngest person to sing the entire “Chunhyangga” in eight straight hours when she was 20 and is listed in the Guinness World Records. However, she did not settle for the traditional art and explored new genres. Lee is a leader of Maybe Lee Ja-ram Band and released a single in 2009. She also received the Best Performance by a New Actress distinction at the fifth Musical Awards earlier this month for her role of Song-hwa in the musical “Seopyeonje.” Lee now presents “Ukchuk-ga,” a modern version of pansori, co-produced by LG Arts Center and Uijeongbu Arts Center and directed by Nam In-

Jun 15, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo

Asian Sweets to portray lives of social minorities

By Chung Ah-young Korean-Japanese playwright Chong Wishing’s new play “Asian Sweets” will be staged for the first time in Korea. The title comes from the name of a pudding sold in a convenience store in the play, which is nicely packaged but it is nothing more than a dessert which turns out to be empty and transient. The play is dedicated to the late Korean-Japanese actress Kim Ku Mi-ja who died in 2004. It premiered in Japan and was on stage until recently receiving positive reviews. As with his previous work “Yakiniku Dragon,” it portrays the daily life of a Korean family that operates a restaurant in the face of adversity in Kansai, Japan in the late 1960s. “Asian Sweets” will also shed light on the agonies of a Korean-Japanese family in a warm-hearted way mixed with Chong’s unique insights and interpretations. The play is set in an old boutique in a small town that is under redevelopment in Japan. A crippled woman in her 40s lives a vapid life while making wedding dresses and other women’s clothing. One day her mother, who left home for a new husband and brot

Jun 14, 2011

Kim emerges as Swan Queen in ballet fest

By Lee Hyo-won Nimble pointed footwork dominated the weekend arts scene with the opening of a ballet festival Sunday, the same day the Universal Ballet Theater’s striking Jiri Kylian showcase came to an end. Kim Ji-young, recently returned from performing in Italy, emerged as a ravishing Swan Queen in the Korea National Ballet’s “Swan Lake,” the opening performance of the 1st Ballet Festival Korea. The performance saw a marked improvement in the company’s interpretation of the Bolshoi piece that was staged here last December (organizers of the government-backed event said they had no choice but to do reruns due to limited prep time). Yet the leaps and bounds with which Kim harnessed her artistry were beyond expectation. The ballerina was still excruciatingly thin from being ill around the time she starred in the company’s sellout “Giselle” earlier this year, and was no doubt even more enervated from pulling off the lead in Luciano Cannito’s “Cinderella” in Palermo several weeks ago. Yet Kim, a former member of the Dutch National Ballet, was a quiet tour de for

Jun 13, 2011

Arts & Theater