Shut the front door!
A chance to write, photograph, and wander around a festival centered on dancing all in one day? No need to pull my arm, Korea, I'm there with an open heart, open notebook, and an open aperture [well, not quite].
I should have known the day would lead to adventure as we walked down the subway stairs to our [perceived] transfer point in Daegok; when all of a sudden, my boot heel caught on the stair thus catapulting me forward towards a potential gruesome accident. Needless to say, my grace and poise allowed myself to recover at the expense of freakishly grabbing onto my friend thus causing her coffee to soar through the air beautifully onto said subway staircase that was effortlessly trying to kill me.
Kersplat went the coffee, and so began our day. [Clumsy has always been my second name.]
Our adventure did not stop there; no way, that would be too easy and completely unheard of in my life. Of course the day would bring more hiccups and challenges, all the more testing my patience, strength, and perseverance. Naturally, my anxiety and OCD tendencies would push myself onto a [wrong] train due to my trust issues with the subway app telling me I had to wait 20 mins for the [right] transfer car going to Seoul Station: which was our perceived destination. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder--in our case, we thought we were supposed to go to Seoul Station, where in reality, we should have been on Line 1 going to City Hall Station. [Palm to face]. Eventually we ended up in the correct train, going in the right direction and going to the correct destination, to meet our party of bloggers at the bus stop.
An hour and 15 minutes later, we were finally relaxing on our charter bus with air conditioning, an oddball assortment of a sandwich [ham, pickles, apples, cucumber, mustard, and mayo--Korean style] and a juice box just like on middle school field trips. Due to my excitement with my near-death experience and adventurous lifestyle of train-hopping, I passed out for a good hour only to awake to a horrific realization: I forgot my CF cards for my SLR camera. [Second palm to face]
With an iPhone fully charged in my pocket [for once], a notepad under arm, and a spirit of curiosity-- I was ready to explore the festival.
Our first hour came with absolute freedom to wander and explore all that the World Dance Festival had to offer. An hour you say? What on earth could you do in one hour? Believe me, an hour was plenty of excitement.
Did somebody say wine...?
Grape Festival
That's right, we came across a miniature grape festival where families could go fishing for a bunch of grapes, nourish their toes in a bath of grape juice/wine, tickle their feet by squishing grapes in a kiddie pool [Lucy and Ethel style], or launch some grapes into wooden boxes adorned with world flags.
Delicious, wholesome, and plenty of entertainment for children and adults alike. Mom and Dad could also do some wine tasting....
Upcycled Art
Koreans are crazy awesome at recycling, if not the best in the world. Everything is sorted down to food, paper, plastic, aluminum, bottles, and everything else [which shouldn't be much].
Not to mention, they also use recycled material in their art as well. We stumbled across a pretty neat sculpture/toys/figures made out 100% recyclable materials. Go Korea!
Not to mention, there were plenty of arts and crafts for people to participate in such as bracelet making, sculpture building, sand art, or caricatures. Kids seemed entertained and engaged in the process--it was definitely fun to see their creativity burst throughout the different tents.
World Music
With world dancing, there is bound to be world music, right? That's like not asking peanut butter to marry jelly in a sandwich wedding. Wrong, just wrong. Ergo, there were many wonderful tents that provided opportunities for people to explore music and instruments from around the world. There were guitars, chimes, bells, ukeleles, wind instruments and more. My favorite tents included a percussion section--one where you could try out the instruments, and another tent where you could partake in a drumming class....up top, Korea! [high-five].
Traditional Food Market
Another highlight of the festival included a traditional Korean food market where you could find fresh produce, plants, flowers, traditional Korean street food such as ddeok [sticky rice cake], and we even had exciting entertainment: a medical emergency complete with a flock of Korean bystanders and a 5'1 Korean woman viciously yelling at a man twice her size. My friend and I seriously thought the man was getting a full body massage, turns out he was being "revived" until paramedics could arrive. True adventure at its finest.
Dance Battles
Our hour of freedom soon came to an end and our festival guide prompted us to meet at the Improv dance stage hosting a 'Comedy Dance-Off.' I never thought a dance-off could be so comedic and enlightening on purpose, but I was proved wrong that day. Many of the acts contained originality whereas some lacked tact, original thought, and skill. My favorites included a dancing ajumma, a 5 year old boy impersonating some wicked Psy dance moves, a latin dancer with a four inch loincloth and an antler head donning some Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses, and just your average, everyday Korean bboy.
Little did I know that the top winners of the dance competition would walk away with a hefty check of 500,000 won or more. The overall winner danced away with 2.6 million won [more than my paycheck]. If only I had known about the youtube submission dates, yours truly would have more than willingly danced the night away in that competition.
The night winded down with some traditional Korean dancing, a dinner of seafood, rice and makgeolli and the grand finale of a Street Festival--a parade of World Dancers showcasing everything from traditional folk dances, teenagers bobbing their heads and shaking hips to K-pop, a dance competition among "tiny dancers," and a parade of Korean dignitaries.
The Street Festival was my favorite experience because it provided a chance to sit among dignified Korean sponsors of the World Dance Festival and ultimately reap the benefits of VIP status. We were seated in the VIP bleachers that came with pumpkin taffy, wine, cheese, grapes, and the best seats in the street! A kind Korean gentleman took notice of our foreigner faces right away and politely ushered food in our direction the rest of the night. We felt like true royalty!
Overall, you could say my day was packed with humor, adventure, and wonder. Of course there were things I would have done differently--such as not spending the entire day watching the comedy battles, exploring more of the Korean market, partaking in the arts and crafts, watching the huge video game battle [okay, maybe not this one], rubbing elbows with Korean locals and enjoying more of the professional and traditional folk dance competitions. However, with the [free] opportunity to partake in Korean and 'round the world culture, I can't really complain too much. I would do the day all over again...even with my adventurous travel hiccups. There is beauty in everything, good and bad, exciting or boring, ongoing or static. It all depends on how you carry [beauty] with you.
At least next time, I would have packed my dancing shoes.
**Some of the photos above were contributed by Evan Ryu **
This post would not have been possible without the sponsorship of The World Dance Festival Cheon-an.
I should have known the day would lead to adventure as we walked down the subway stairs to our [perceived] transfer point in Daegok; when all of a sudden, my boot heel caught on the stair thus catapulting me forward towards a potential gruesome accident. Needless to say, my grace and poise allowed myself to recover at the expense of freakishly grabbing onto my friend thus causing her coffee to soar through the air beautifully onto said subway staircase that was effortlessly trying to kill me.
Kersplat went the coffee, and so began our day. [Clumsy has always been my second name.]
Our adventure did not stop there; no way, that would be too easy and completely unheard of in my life. Of course the day would bring more hiccups and challenges, all the more testing my patience, strength, and perseverance. Naturally, my anxiety and OCD tendencies would push myself onto a [wrong] train due to my trust issues with the subway app telling me I had to wait 20 mins for the [right] transfer car going to Seoul Station: which was our perceived destination. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder--in our case, we thought we were supposed to go to Seoul Station, where in reality, we should have been on Line 1 going to City Hall Station. [Palm to face]. Eventually we ended up in the correct train, going in the right direction and going to the correct destination, to meet our party of bloggers at the bus stop.
An hour and 15 minutes later, we were finally relaxing on our charter bus with air conditioning, an oddball assortment of a sandwich [ham, pickles, apples, cucumber, mustard, and mayo--Korean style] and a juice box just like on middle school field trips. Due to my excitement with my near-death experience and adventurous lifestyle of train-hopping, I passed out for a good hour only to awake to a horrific realization: I forgot my CF cards for my SLR camera. [Second palm to face]
With an iPhone fully charged in my pocket [for once], a notepad under arm, and a spirit of curiosity-- I was ready to explore the festival.
Our first hour came with absolute freedom to wander and explore all that the World Dance Festival had to offer. An hour you say? What on earth could you do in one hour? Believe me, an hour was plenty of excitement.
Did somebody say wine...?Grape Festival
That's right, we came across a miniature grape festival where families could go fishing for a bunch of grapes, nourish their toes in a bath of grape juice/wine, tickle their feet by squishing grapes in a kiddie pool [Lucy and Ethel style], or launch some grapes into wooden boxes adorned with world flags.
Delicious, wholesome, and plenty of entertainment for children and adults alike. Mom and Dad could also do some wine tasting....
Upcycled Art
Koreans are crazy awesome at recycling, if not the best in the world. Everything is sorted down to food, paper, plastic, aluminum, bottles, and everything else [which shouldn't be much].Not to mention, they also use recycled material in their art as well. We stumbled across a pretty neat sculpture/toys/figures made out 100% recyclable materials. Go Korea!
Not to mention, there were plenty of arts and crafts for people to participate in such as bracelet making, sculpture building, sand art, or caricatures. Kids seemed entertained and engaged in the process--it was definitely fun to see their creativity burst throughout the different tents.
With world dancing, there is bound to be world music, right? That's like not asking peanut butter to marry jelly in a sandwich wedding. Wrong, just wrong. Ergo, there were many wonderful tents that provided opportunities for people to explore music and instruments from around the world. There were guitars, chimes, bells, ukeleles, wind instruments and more. My favorite tents included a percussion section--one where you could try out the instruments, and another tent where you could partake in a drumming class....up top, Korea! [high-five].
Another highlight of the festival included a traditional Korean food market where you could find fresh produce, plants, flowers, traditional Korean street food such as ddeok [sticky rice cake], and we even had exciting entertainment: a medical emergency complete with a flock of Korean bystanders and a 5'1 Korean woman viciously yelling at a man twice her size. My friend and I seriously thought the man was getting a full body massage, turns out he was being "revived" until paramedics could arrive. True adventure at its finest.
Dance Battles
Our hour of freedom soon came to an end and our festival guide prompted us to meet at the Improv dance stage hosting a 'Comedy Dance-Off.' I never thought a dance-off could be so comedic and enlightening on purpose, but I was proved wrong that day. Many of the acts contained originality whereas some lacked tact, original thought, and skill. My favorites included a dancing ajumma, a 5 year old boy impersonating some wicked Psy dance moves, a latin dancer with a four inch loincloth and an antler head donning some Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses, and just your average, everyday Korean bboy.
Little did I know that the top winners of the dance competition would walk away with a hefty check of 500,000 won or more. The overall winner danced away with 2.6 million won [more than my paycheck]. If only I had known about the youtube submission dates, yours truly would have more than willingly danced the night away in that competition.
The night winded down with some traditional Korean dancing, a dinner of seafood, rice and makgeolli and the grand finale of a Street Festival--a parade of World Dancers showcasing everything from traditional folk dances, teenagers bobbing their heads and shaking hips to K-pop, a dance competition among "tiny dancers," and a parade of Korean dignitaries.The Street Festival was my favorite experience because it provided a chance to sit among dignified Korean sponsors of the World Dance Festival and ultimately reap the benefits of VIP status. We were seated in the VIP bleachers that came with pumpkin taffy, wine, cheese, grapes, and the best seats in the street! A kind Korean gentleman took notice of our foreigner faces right away and politely ushered food in our direction the rest of the night. We felt like true royalty!
Overall, you could say my day was packed with humor, adventure, and wonder. Of course there were things I would have done differently--such as not spending the entire day watching the comedy battles, exploring more of the Korean market, partaking in the arts and crafts, watching the huge video game battle [okay, maybe not this one], rubbing elbows with Korean locals and enjoying more of the professional and traditional folk dance competitions. However, with the [free] opportunity to partake in Korean and 'round the world culture, I can't really complain too much. I would do the day all over again...even with my adventurous travel hiccups. There is beauty in everything, good and bad, exciting or boring, ongoing or static. It all depends on how you carry [beauty] with you.
At least next time, I would have packed my dancing shoes.
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"Dress classy; dance cheesy."
-PSY
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**Some of the photos above were contributed by Evan Ryu **
This post would not have been possible without the sponsorship of The World Dance Festival Cheon-an.
