Our journey through K-Night 2008: Seoul to Pyongyang brought audiences to their feet by the end of the show. The Korean Student Association (KSA) made serious noise on campus at their annual culture show in Levin Ballroom on Saturday Night.
The show started with the voices of KSA’s Political chair Soohan Song ’08 who sang the American National Anthem and Choon Woo Ha ’08 who sang the Korean National Anthem, and ended with an uproar of traditional Poongmul drumming.
The show this year enraptured the audience with various examples of Korean culture. From the minute you sat in your seats, you embarked on a journey which connected the capital cities of North and South Korea, in which you discovered the richness of traditional and modern Korean culture.
K-Night 2008 event coordinators Kristine Suh ’09 and Monica Kim ’09 tried to cover numerous areas of Korean Culture by incorporating education about Korean culture as well as entertaining viewers with dances, skits and performing arts. Towards the beginning of the show the KSA Executive Board performed a skit of what can be classified as a modern-day Korean Drama located right at Brandeis University.
Next a group of five Brandeis students, led by the choreographer Joyce Kong, took the stage to show off their elegance during the Traditional Fan Dance. With the use of fans they were able to display a show of dance by recreating images of flowers, butterflies and waves.
As the five ladies walked off the stage we were greeted next by a lone man by the name of John Park. All the way from the streets of New Jersey, this Korean Hip-Hop artist performed a fifteen minute set and had the audience screaming “good music” all the way to the end of the show.
Walking to the sounds of Korean Pop and traditional fusion, a group of Brandeis students took the stage for a fashion show displaying traditional Korean clothing.
Up next, an outstanding Tae Kwon Do performance left the audience speechless. Beginning with slow movements and positions hardly prepared us for what was to follow. In a matter of minutes boards were flying everywhere, performers were spinning kicks and getting hit with baseball bats, while others were breaking boards with their faces and flexed bodies.
After a short intermission, the show opened up again with the musical stylings of the band Miss Vintage. As Miss Vintage rushed quickly to clear their equipment off the stage we were welcomed with a modern dance performed by ten Brandeis students. Once again led by Joyce Kong the dancers moved along to the beat of the song, “Tell Me”.
Narrated by Song, we were given a slide show of Korean historical and political culture. The presentation ignited an awareness among audience members of Korea’s history in order to understand their future. A group of freshmen students joined the stage to perform the annual “freshmen skit”, written and directed by the ICC Representative, Esther Yi. This comedic performance reflected Korean heritage via an amusing skit.
For the finale, fifteen students came together to perform the traditional Poongmul drumming. After the show was over, the audience enjoyed a wide selection of Korean food served in our very own Usdan including popular dishes like “kimchi” and “japchae”. Audiences were able to mingle with the various performers of the night.
