Taekwondo moves were performed to K-pop beats, a traditional samulnori troupe came to the stage alongside a b-boying dance troupe, and the non-Korean audience was greatly impressed, responding with huge rounds of applause.
The “Hello, Mr. K!” concert, featuring traditional arts combined with pop culture, took place at Yonsei University on July 21. Some 1,200 students from the university’s Korean Language Institute and from the summer school attended the concert. The show featured the taekwondo demonstration team K-Tigers, the traditional samulnori musical troupe Gwanggaeto Samul and the b-boying crew M.B Crew. It was emceed by singer Moonshine, and starred the all-female pop sensation 4Ten.
The audience fully enjoyed the traditional performances combined with modern pop acts. Apolline Forwi from France chose the taekwondo demonstration as her favorite. “The uncommon combination of the traditional martial art and modern pop music worked quite well. The pop music fit well with the moves,” she said. Bard Merzoug from Morocco who said that he is quite keen on samulnori chose the joint performance of samulnori and b-boying. “The samulnori was my favorite today. I personally think that samulnori is one of the most representative heritages of traditional Korea,” he said.
The “Hello, Mr. K!” concert, featuring traditional Korean stage acts combined with K-pop and other dance performances, is organized by the Korean Culture and Information Service and will come to the stage once again on Aug. 30 for the opening ceremony of the 2016 World Print & Communication Forum, and again on Oct. 5 at Kyung Hee University.
Park Sa-lim, Seoul