Nanta at the Hi Seoul Festival

Last Monday night, Julie and I didn't feel like twiddling our thumbs at home all night, so we headed into Seoul to catch a little bit of what the Hi Seoul Festival had to offer. The selling point for us was  we heard there was a free showing of the popular Nanta happening that night. For those keeping score at home, Nanta is Korea's most famous theater show. It is basically a kitchen-flavored love child of Stomp and Blue Man Group. The premise of the hour-long show is three cooks, a nasty restaurant manager, and an apprentice trying to make a meal for a wedding or something. The non-verbal show is high-octane fun for all ages and loaded with percussion, rhythm, dance, and comedy. Whoa I sound like an advertisement. Considering the tickets usually go for like $40 or something, we couldn't pass up the chance to see it while saving some serious won (we work at public schools ok?! not those cushy, high-paying hagwon jobs. no, im not bitter about the pay difference, why do you ask?! no, really!!).

Phew where was I? Ah yes that's right. So the word 'Nanta' literally translates to "hit repeatedly" or "strike relentlessly" (thank you Internet) and that pretty much sums up the theme of the show. Nonstop entertainment, my kind of jam. The venue was pretty small so there wasn't really a bad seat in the house. It was essentially an over-sized pavilion that held a few hundred people. The show itself included dramatic drum segments with knives and drumsticks alike, lots of audience participation, and cool light shows. Mom and Dad, when you guys come visit (I said when not if) we should probably check this out. That goes for you too Bryce, Marit, Adam, Tonya (yes you Tonya!) and Seegz. Here are some pics I definitely didn't take:

And since I'm still riding this whole making videos thing, I decided to compile all the clips I illegally took (they said no video, whoops) into a short and quickly-edited video.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYTcoQJTwEc

The 2:00 mark is the start of the encore. It gets a little dark and difficult to see, but what's happening is a traditional Korean dance where a long ribbon is attached to the top of hat. The dancers twirls their heads and, correspondingly, so too does the ribbon. Nanta's version included black lights. Ok enjoy!