Students make fresh dalgona at the Spirit of Korea celebration on the South 40 on Friday.

Wearing basketball jerseys representing the Lakers, Bulls, Heat, Magic and Knicks, 10 girls jumped and pointed to the sky to the beat of “Bubble Pop,” a well-known pop song in Korea, during Friday night’s Spirit of Korea event.

The evening of activities culminated in a number of traditional and contemporary Korean performances on a stage set up outside of Ursa’s Fireside. Students filled the Clock Tower Plaza, lined the balcony between Lien and Gregg Houses and leaned out of the Lien first-floor common room windows to enjoy the various performances.

SOK, a collaboration between the Korean Students Association and Korean International Student Society, ran from 4:30-9 p.m. and incorporated art activities, games, food, music and dancing in a well-rounded celebration of Korean culture.

Tang, a band of 5 students, opened the show with a cover of 5tion’s “Only 4 U.”  Several K-pop dances followed Tang, and the first act also included a “rainy” hip-hop dance.

The students performing the traditional Korean fan dance surprised the audience when they broke into “Harlem Shake.” Underneath their traditional hangbok dresses, the girls wore colorful shirts and shorts, which they revealed when the music changed. Freshman Jonathan Vachon described the dance as exhibiting “humor and sass with a dash of grace.”

The first act closed with a performance by WU Cypher, a break dance group. The crowd swelled with prospective freshmen visiting for Celebration Weekend as the second act began.

Emcees Eunhye Oak, a junior, and Paul Ahn, a senior, offered tips for prospective freshmen between dances and even brought performers onstage to explain why visitors should attend Washington University.

The second half opened with Tang’s performance of “Becoming Dust” and “Gangnam Style.”

Students playing traditional standing drums followed Tang, amusing the audience with humorous shouting antics as students on either side of the line tossed drums back and forth. The second half included more K-pop dance performances of “I Got a Boy” by Girls’ Generation, “Stop Girl” by U-Kiss, “Know Your Name” by Jay Park and mixes of SHINee, G-Dragon and Sistar songs.

Junior Ezinne Arizor, a self-described “Korea buff” and co-choreographer of “I Got a Boy,” enjoys the unique expression involved in K-pop performance. “[K-pop] is the look. It’s the song. It’s the dance…Performing that kind of package dance is too much fun,” Arizor said.

SOK ended with Samulnori fusion, a combination of traditional drums with a modern rock band to perform “Korea” by Psy.

Students enjoyed the energy of the performances as well as seeing people they knew onstage.

“One of the big surprises is you’ll see your biology [teaching assistant], that kid in your class, [and] they’re all here,” junior Yaa Kwansa said.

The show, however, was just the cap of a plethora of cultural activities filling Clock Tower Plaza Friday afternoon.

At booths, students learned to write their names in Korean calligraphy, had the Korean flag painted on their faces, played traditional board games, flew kites and participated in martial arts demonstrations.

Vachon, who grew up in Singapore and attended the event with friends, also learned how to roundhouse kick properly from a Korean student dressed in a white Tae Kwon Do uniform with a black belt. Vachon delivered three roundhouse kicks into thick black pads on the arms of another student.

Students were able to collect a stamp after participating at any of the booths showcasing Korean culture, and after earning three, they were able to get free Korean food.

Three types of Korean street food were served in Styrofoam cups: a thick red, spicy, sauce-coated large chewy noodle; Jeon, a Korean pancake containing seafood and green onion in fried egg batter; and carrot slivers and beef with thin noodles in a slightly sweet-flavored stir fry.

Korean students made fresh dalgona, a traditional Korean cookie, by melting and stirring sugar in small pans over stoves. People dipped chopsticks into the pans and waited for the cookie to cool before nibbling on it. The dalgona quickly cooled into a shiny brown coating on chopsticks and tasted similar to a toasted marshmallow.

Students also sampled various types of Korean bottled tea in varieties ranging from citrus to milk. “[This tea] reminds me of home,” Vachon said.