Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A must-see Korean

A comic kimchi: The Korean acrobatic troupe Yegam's show mixes martial arts, slapstick humor and accomplished acrobatics

JUMP, the first martial arts dramatic performance in the world, is a creative combination of a variety of dazzling acrobatics and dynamic martial arts including taekwondo and taekkyeon – Korean traditional martial arts. Ever since it first hit the stage in July 2003 the show has been incredibly popular in Korea, drawing visiting and living foreigners from across the country to its Seoul theater every week. JUMP is a homegrown show targeting a global audience. Its exciting story is told in a non-verbal way, hence its remarkable international success. In 2005 and 2006 it took the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by storm, and then went on to tour around the world, ending up on London’s West End and New York’s off-Broadway.

Leaps, jumps and high kicks are set to an amusing storyline where the future (and very cute) son-in-law is coming to visit a family of martial arts masters. That night, a pair of clumsy thieves break into the house and engage in a battle with the martial arts family, and it's pure entertainment till the show's last minute.
-----
I saw JUMP for the first time on September 12th (a Saturday) this year and am already planning on a second time! The performances are so entertaining that you wish the show would never end.

I managed to quickly shoot this short video of the end of the show until one of the ushers came over to me, very politely, and gave me the "not-allowed" Korean arm "X"ing sign. Oh well. :)



And here's a real cool long video I found on YouTube of the show in some other country. It doesn't say where it took place, but I read that it originally aired on some major television network.
Enjoy and try and JUMP along! ;)



Jump Theater, Seoul: After getting autographs from all Jump cast members, Indian Ph.D. student Sonia Henam poses for a picture with cute actor Yoon Sang Hee, who plays the shy-brave son-in-law in the show on scheduled dates. Sonia's words were simple, "I had a lot of fun!"


Location: Jump Theater (33-1 Gwancheol-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul)
The show runs daily with two performances every day. However, be aware that there are three performances on Saturdays and one on Mondays.
Check out the following websites for all the info:
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_2_1.jsp?cid=684044
http://www.yegam.com/jump/kor/

1 comment:

Cait_Sith said...

I saw that performance...really funny...I also have a blog about korea....www.junglelifeinkorea.blogspot.com