The theatrical performance “Asia’s mysterious sound” dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan was held at the State Republican Korean Theater of Musical Comedy, Kazpravda.kz reports.
“Our performance is a kind of reflection of the diverse culture of our country,” says the theater director, Honored Worker of the Republic of Kazakhstan Lyubov Ni. “Of course, Korean motifs and melodies are taken as a basis, but they sound in modern processing and reflect our mentality – the mentality of Koreans living in multinational Kazakhstan.”
The artists presented a grandiose drum show, bright choreographic numbers, as well as original Korean songs. All compositions were performed live to the accompaniment of an instrumental group of the Korean Theater. This is the first drum show of this scale, fully staged and performed by Kazakh artists. In total, the show involved about 90 drums, specially brought from the Republic of Korea.
The well-known violinist, Honored Worker of the Republic of Kazakhstan Dzhamilya Serkebayeva took part in the performance, performing a joint composition with Korean drummers.
The theatrical performance was staged by the director of the Korean Theater Elena Kim, choreographer – chief choreographer of the theater, holder of the Dostyk Order Larisa Kim, musical arrangement – Georgy Yun, Honored Worker of the Republic of Kazakhstan, production designer Yulia Chernova.
“The program of the theatrical performance was divided into four parts and symbolized the four elements,” says Elena Kim. This concept was proposed by the head of the folklore-ethnographic group “Samulnori” of the Korean theater Alexander Pak. – In my opinion, it was successful, since the performance that we presented on the show were very different – both in character and in genre, but we managed to put them together in one program. We hope that the audience will appreciate our approach and perspective on traditional Korean music.”
“The Tang Ullim composition, which opened our show, reflects the principle of the four elements,” Alexander Pak explained his idea. – Each type of drum represents one of the elements – water, fire, wind or earth. At the same time, the performer identifies with himself the fifth element – a person who is able to control this element or is absorbed by it. According to him, he first saw something like this 20 years ago at a festival in the Republic of Korea. Then the dream appeared to put on such a performance, but at that time the theater lacked tools, people and performance technique was not a strong point. Therefore, the staging had to be postponed.
“My dream took on a real shape in the summer, when I suggested that the director of the Korean Theater stage this number. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the management of the theater and all my colleagues, as it was a kind of adventure – outside of Korea, no one has ever staged performances of such magnitude. All musical drawings, bundles were developed by us, and not copied from colleagues from Korea. We were engaged in staging the number for four months. What is remarkable is that the most difficult technical parts are performed by girls, ballet dancers of the Korean Theater Anastasia Tsoi, Yulia Tsoi, Gulmira Bakytkhanova, Laura Yerzhigitova, as well as drama artist Evgenia Yun, who, by the way, learned all the parts of all the drums,” said Pak.
The theatrical performance was attended by the entire creative staff of the Korean Theater – vocalists – Zoya Kim, Honored Artist of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Sergey Kim, Vitaly Lee, Maya Lee, Roman Kim, Angelina Yugay, Shynar Umirzakova, artists of the ballet and drama troupe, as well as musicians of the folklore and ethnographic Samulnori group.
