Friday April 17 was the welcoming party for the Korea Tourism K-Performance Supporters. It was held at VIP’s in the Jongno Cinecore. The food was quite good - lots of variety, and all served nice and fresh. My personal favorite selection was the smoked salmon, since salmon tends to get expensive. The only thing wrong with dinner was the lines, since I am a naturally impatient person. But I overcame my urge to worm my way to the front, so I think I deserve applause for that. I was a bit too busy eating to take pictures of the food~! That’s a sign of good food, right~?
After dinner, we filed upstairs to watch SaChoom.
(...I can’t help but wonder if the name is a smash up of Sarang and Choom, meaning Love Dance? Maybe they said at some point during the show - if they did, I missed it.)
(Ok, google says what that the name is from. I will trust google on this point. So, yes. the name means “Love dance.” I like that.)
My friends and I had front row tickets. At first I was excited, but then the screen narration started saying “don’t be afraid to interact!” I am not the type to say “PLEASE INTERACT WITH ME, ACTORS!” so there was a moment or two of extreme worry, but then I decided to just sit back and relax and I am glad I did.
The performers were all very engergetic and clearly enjoyed their time onstage as much as the audience watching did. SaChoom tells - via dance and text onscreen - a very loose, stream of consciousness love story between a girl and the two very different men who love her.
I won’t spoil too much of the story, but. Well.
There’s a birthday number....
And an absolutely hilarious squeaky-duck-voice MC who will make your showtime very interesting* if you dislike interacting with the people on stage. Or being onstage at all.
There’s also shirtless robot man.
Afterwords, all the dancers hang around in the lobby if you want to take a picture. Did I mention all the dancers were gorgeous?
...because they were. This opinion is not at a l l influenced by my weakness for dimples or the fact that the gentleman gave me candy.
Not at alll.
In short, SaChoom was a great performance, and I look forward to the next KTO event.
*by ‘interesting, i mean miserable. If you don’t like interaction, try your hardest to sit in the back!
Korean Tourism Organisation Welcome dinner and “Sa Choom” Dance performance
The 4th batch of K-Supporters were invited to dinner and a dance performance afterwards on April 17th. And your's truly, getting any chance to get out, decided to join along with my friend Arslan. As per local (Korean) dinner timings go, we were asked to be there at 6 pm and being the punctual people we are, we were at the designated station at 5:50 pm. Little did we know that the station itself was a good 10 minutes walk itself, and then 10 minutes to the location. Hurrying up we finally got to the place on time (being 5 minutes late doesn't count, does it ?)
The dinner was hosted at VIPS, a well reputed (and a bit heavy on the pocket, but worth every penny) steak house in Korea. The place was packed with more than 150 people from all over the world, teachers, journalists, writers and students and all. We were joined by two lovely ladies, Skilvia and Alice on our table. Much to mine (and I am sure everyone's) relief the welcome and introduction speech was kept really short and we all were urged to pay heed to our growling stomachs.
The menu consisted of 30+ amazing dishes ranging from smoked fish, vegetable curry to barbecued chicken and juicy ham. Not even I could taste everything, and trust me I tried :P.
After an appetite pleasing and stomach filling dinner and light conversation we were asked to move to the floor upstairs, where the performance would begin.
Having never really seen any dance performance in Korea I was not sure what to expect from the one I was going to attend, but nothing could have prepared me for the breath taking performance I was about to witness.
I will not even try to explain the performance as I feel that no words can do justice to it and one should just go there and experience it themselves. The performers did superhuman, gravity defying acts while making the audience shed tears of laughter and delivering a message to stay strong and follow your dreams.
And in the end the cast was gracious enough to let us take pictures with them, epic right ?
^ Thats yours truly. PS: Im in love with the girl in white...HELP ME OUT !!!
^ Alice, the sweetest and cutest Chinese I have met so far.
De verdad estoy muy orgullosa de JYJ. No solo por esforzarse tanto por superar las adversidades, sino también porque son tan excelentes personas que hasta sus amigos hacen lo imposible para promocionarlos, ya sea en programas como estos, con pequeños comentarios en entrevistas o hasta los productores, incluyendo publicidad subliminal en los doramas (ya saben, con revistas, posters y demases).
Y por sobre todo estoy orgullosa de ellos por hacer que sus fans nos emocionemos con pequeñas cosas como estas, sólo porque por ser como son, hacen que los queramos cada día más y sintamos la necesidad de apoyarlos siempre.
Someday, I'll get my boyfriend to teach me this dance sequence... and I'll do it better than the skinny actress who needs just a little bit more hips to swing around... which I have in abundance... Thank god I took those salsa classes back in college, they may come in handy...
Saw Sachoom last night. It was really entertaining! It's a dance musical with some singing. Crowd participation was a must and they encouraged everyone to take pictures and video. And even had us all stand up and dance at the end. I got called out on because I was the only American/English-speaking foreigner in the audience. The actor gave instructions in Korean, Japanese and Chinese, then looked around the audience and spotted me (didn't help that I was about five rows back in the center). I got asked where I was from, he started singing 'New York', I was tempted to start singing 'Oklahoma' and he then told me that at the end of the performance I should stand up and dance. Apparently the exchange was loud enough that my boyfriend heard from back stage.
Anyway, I highly recommend it if you get a chance. Plus, my honey plays the so-called 'bad guy' in one of the current cast rotations. I thought it was super hot. As did the dozens of Japanese tourist that mauled him for pictures after the show...
I leave you with a sneak peak... It's from the first act. I feel sorry for the little guy, but... what can I say, I like guys that are big enough to protect me... ; )
