Sungsub Kim

Students perform the Korean fan dance at Spirit of Korea in 2012.

Student Life: What is Spirit of Korea all about?

Natalia Lee: Basically, it’s presented by both KSA and KISS, which are Korean Student Association and Korean International Student Society. So both groups are basically about Korean students and its culture, so they do a wide variety of activities such as Korean Lunar New Year events and [Spirit of Korea], of course, which is the most important part of their activities, and they do a lot of national holiday events.

SL: Has the event always been a collaboration between KSA and KISS?

NL: Yes, always. It started like nine years ago, nine to 10 years ago.

SL: What’s new with Spirit of Korea this year?

NL: So traditionally we have K-pop performances and some other traditional Korean performances. Before we had a rock band thing, but then this year we changed it to acoustic, like, vocal performance. So that’s kind of new. We also have two guest performances by PL4Y [a K-pop dance group] and WUCypher [a break dance group].

SL: What is your expected attendance?

NL: Usually we have 300–400 people.

SL: So is that about the attendance you had last year?

NL: Yeah.

SL: What kind of outreach do you do to pre-freshmen?

NL: Actually, Spirit of Korea is one the official programs of Celebration Weekend. So during the weekend, a lot of international students who are living in the States come to Wash. U. to explore campus. Spirit of Korea is held in front of the Clocktower, so we try to attract a lot of pre-frosh people to come to SOK so that they can experience variety and what we do here.

SL: About how much time goes into planning SOK? And when did the planning start?

NL: Basically, we decided to do this last semester, like me and Jae Choe [the other co-head director of SOK]. We started planning things at the end of last semester. And then as soon as the semester started, we started the application process for the Spirit of Korea committee. And then we had the dancer auditions in February, right after LNYF was over. And then basically from then, every dance performance, they started their practice. So basically, we put about 20 hours per week.

SL: So did you apply to be the co-head director, or were you appointed?

NL: Kind of appointed, yeah.

SL: How did you choose the choreographers?

NL: So they went through the application and interview process. And then they had to show us a certain kind of choreography that they wanted to do for SOK.

SL: Who chose the choreographers?

NL: Me and Jae and the presidents of KISS and KSA.

SL: How do you choose the styles of dance?

NL: Basically we try to see a lot of different dynamics. Like in K-pop, there are a lot of boy bands and girl bands and some co-ed dances, so we try to do all of them. And we also wanted to do high dance energy but at the same time some kind of low energy.

SL: So is it primarily K-pop?

NL: Yes, yeah.

SL: Does the event feature more traditional dances?

NL: Oh, yeah, sure. We have one acoustic band, and we have Samulnori. Samulnori is basically—it literally means four instruments playing. So we have four traditional instruments, like Korean instruments. It’s like the finale of SOK. And also we have standing drums, which are one of the Korean drums. And we also have Korean fan dance.

SL: How do the Spirit of Korea dances differ from those of the same style at LNYF?

NL: I would say it’s more like an upgraded version, I guess. They are trying to do fusion. So if you want to see the “Harlem Shake” version of [Korean fan dance] [laughter]. And also Samulnori is doing a fusion thing, so they combine the rock band, like the drums, the vocals, the electric guitar, with the tradition of Samulnori performance.

SL: What dance groups are you performing in?

NL: I’m in “High High” by GD and TOP. And the other one, I’m actually not in the dance, but I’m just choreographing. That one’s “Bubble Pop” by Hyuna.

SL: What other performances will you have at Spirit of Korea?

NL: So before the performances start, we are trying to do game booths. We have a lot of those activities including face painting and traditional Korean calligraphy, writing your name in Korean. And we also have Korean martial arts lessons, as well, which is tae kwon do. And then we also have some traditional games like Korean tug-of-war and shuttlecock kicking. Yeah, it’s kind of weird to translate [“shuttlecock kicking”] into English. And we are going to have free food and free Korean snacks.

Spirit of Korea will be held on the South 40 at the Clocktower from 4:30–6:30 p.m. on April 12.