August 15: Liberation Day and The Midday Korean Dance

I would have wanted to sleep longer this morning. It's Liberation Day in Korea and everyone could sleep longer because it's a holiday. But since I signed up to watch the Midday Korean Dance perfomances scheduled for 11AM at the National Theater of Korea located at the other side of Nam-san, I had to drag myself out of the bed to hit the gym first before breakfast, and before I head to the venue, which is just about 5 minutes by bus from Hannam-dong.

                            (The National Theater of Korea)

The show we saw today was a compilation of excerpts from full-length shows of traditional drum dances performances using small drums, Jin-do drums, double-headed drums and dances. But as usual, the audience was not allowed to take pictures during the show. If you're caught taking photos, the ushers would tell you to stop, although the Korean woman in front of me was taking photos all throughout the show. She was stopped a couple of times, but she continued anyway.

                           (The KB Haneul Youth Theater)

As I said, there were lots of drums, which meant that the show was loud and noisy with all the drum banging, but I wondered why the ushers told the parents and their kids to stop talking during the show. Kids will be kids. They will talk because of their curiosity. This wasn't a play or a musicale or a movie, where keeping quiet would be the etiquette. I realized this venue was NOT CHILD-FRIENDLY, and to think that about 40-50% of the audience were kids. 

     (Essentials for the day: a free ticket, a brochure and a fan)

To be fair to the performers, their execution and showmanship were very good, interpretation interesting, costumes glittery and well, since this is the land of BB cream, everyone was very well made-up. Too bad, I wasn't allowed to take pictures. I would have written more to describe each section of the show but I have no photos to go with the description. Two months ago, I saw the Drumcat performance at another venue. I wasn't impressed with that show. This Midday Korean Dance show, however, was way better.

                                              (Before the performance)

The show lasted for about an hour, after which Outback Steakhouse gave away bread and butter outside of the KB Haneul Youth Theater. Thanks, Outback Steakhouse! I still could not forget that packed lunch you guys delivered a couple of years ago for everyone at the Nami Island sponsored by BBB, a Korean organization (read blog here). At Nami Island, the highlight of the Winter Sonata fans' trip was seeing the bronze statue of Bae Yong-Joon. But for me, the highlight of my trip was the Outback Steakhouse packed lunch. 😂

                    (Happy Liberation Day, everyone!)

So, far I spent my holiday at the gym and at the dance theater. Now, time to spend more of it in bed. Time to take a nap. It's still scorching outside. Enjoy your Liberation Day holiday!

Zzzzzzzzz.......😴