Nonverbal performance with chopping boards and knives
Nanta mixes Korean traditional beats with the modern performance cultures and
breaks the borders of countries
Photo credit to NANTA
Like the hot weather in this season of summer, 'Hallryu', Korean wave, is the hot topic to foreigners. Hallryu's spread of Korean televisions and stars has been spread out to the performance arts. In the year of 2011, last year, according to the Korea Tourism Organization, over 1.1 million tourists from all over the world had the experience of watching a performance art during their visit in South Korea. Out of these tourists,according to PMC production in 2011, 700 thousand foreign tourists, 64% of the tourists, watched the performance 'Nanta'.
Nanta started in 1997 at Hoam Art Hall. It has been known for its unique performance style of a nonverbal performance. There is no talking, actors are dressed as chefs, and they hold knives and pound them on chopping boards. This may sound boring. Yet the performance includes lively dancing and making Korean traditional beats while mixing with modern music and performance cultures. Nanta is breaking the borders of performances between countries. Nanta is already probably familiar to lots of foreigners. Therefore to know about the role of Nanta in the world market an interview with Young Joo Lee from the PMC Production(Co.) Nanta Marketing team.
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Q. What is the background of the start of Nanta?
A. Song Seung Hwan, a famous Korean actor, has always been interested in performance arts. Through his interest in such area, he started to make performance arts in Korea. At first he started small. However, as he started to expand the scale of the works, he grew to realize that language was a barricade for Korean works to spread out into the world. Song wanted to make a Korean performance work that can be loved by people from all over the world. While thinking about what can be a special attraction of Korean pieces, he came up with the idea of samulnori, Korean traditional music performances. Mixing familiar beats with Korean traditional music beats seemed like the completion of a new kind of performance. Therefore on stage, there are traditional Korean wedding ceremonies as backgrounds while there are familiar tools such as knives, chopping boards, pots, and plates.
Q. Nanta is currently performed throughout Korea and the United States of America. Which other countries is Nanta planning on expanding to and how is Nanta going to achieve these goals?
A. Nanta is a piece of work that has been made with the thought of oversea expansion since the planning stage. Overseas markets biggest barrier was the language barrier. However there is no longer this barrier since Nanta is a nonverbal performance. Nanta team belives that there is still many countries to expand to. Through continuous foreign marketing, we plan to make Nanta world famous. According to a research on December 31st, 2011, Nanta has been performed in 41 countries, 274 cities and 21, 760 times total.
Q. What makes Nanta special compared to other performance works?
A. In Korea we have Korea traditional beat that is wordly acknowledged for its speciality. In Nanta we use this acknowledged traditional beat for audiences to feel the exciting atmosphere. Combining korea traditional beats with modern performance culture, Nanta is now a strong performance that can have a strong place in the world market. Also nonverbal performances had the defect of repeating the same beat. Therefore it gave the audience boredom due to repetition of beats. However Nanta has been able to overcome this defect. By setting the ordinary and familiar kitchen as the background of the stage and adding dramatic factors to the performances, anyone can enjoy the joyous atmosphere. Also another special point of Nanta is that audiences can come up to the stage and take a part of the show. Nanta's specialty of all is that audiences and actors can symphathize with each other during the performance.
Q. How does Nanta show parts of Korea? Also do you think Nanta can now be absorbed as a part of Korea's culture and history? Yes or no, and why does Nanta Team belive so?
A. Nanta has done a well job on melting the Korean traditional factors modernly. Korean dishes with soul, chopping board noises that remind people of the traditional beats, and actors continuous trying to communicate with the audience show the Korean's characteristic of having lots of feelings for each other. Also the traditional instruments that have been interpreted modernly and fashionably throughout the performance takes a big role in helping the audience understand Korean culture. Due to these reasons Nanta team believes that Nanta is already part of the Korean culture.
Q. What kind of role does Nanta do in the global century?
A. Nanta mixed the friendly beats with the traditional beats. Through this mixture it shows Korean arts throughout the world. Also it helps performances in the world to be officially named as a brand, have their own theaters, and have long term performances. Lastly, Nanta has a value as a traveling product. As the values go up, it draws many tourists to Korea and helps increase the income for tourism industry. |
Since 1997, Nanta has been continuously acknowledged for its speciality through awards such as Grand Prix, Republic of Korea Culture and Art Award, and more. Theaters specially made for Nanta is placed in Gangnam, Jeju, Hong Dae and Myeong Dong. Also performed at Broadway in New York as the first Asian performance work. Korea has been criticized for its weak performance and culture life. With the strive of Nanta toward the world, there is bigger hope for Korea to expand on the cultural life. Overcoming the language barrier and specializing the Korean traditional specialties was the key point of success in the oversea market.
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Nanta is a Korean performance art. However now foreigner actors perform on the Nanta team also. In 2009, Iwamoto Yuka became the first foreign actor to be part of the performance team. She came to Korea in 2002 on a tour with her family and watched Nanta. From this occasion, she was amazed by the delightful new performance and dreamed of performing on the stage herself. With this dream she came to Korea in 2007 and started her way into becoming a Nanta actor. In 2012 out of 50 actors she is the only foreign actor. The auditions are held in at random times of year, according to the schedules of the Nanta team. In the 2012 audition notification, if you are over 24 years who can travel to foreign countries, you are legible. As the Nanta is becoming a wordly performance, foreign actors performing such art will be a visible bridge of the global century.
For further information about Nanta and ticketing please visit http://nanta.i-pmc.co.kr/Nanta/en/Intro.aspx (english website).
For further notification on the audition for Nanta team as an actor please visit http://www.i-pmc.co.kr/community/notice.asp (Korean website). |
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