July is the hottest month of the year. Teachers and students were dying from the scorching heat. To top it all off, the air conditioners were not working. Nothing exciting was going on, only the endless cycle of school and dormitory was repeating over and over. However, on July 16th 2014, a blast was waiting for the students!

 

The “Kung Festival” is a unique b-boy group. Unique in the sense that when other groups only dance, this group not only dances but converts the stage into a musical. They do this without any lines but only with their movements. Another significant difference is that they convey to the audience a theme or message that they want to talk about. Their theme today is about school bullying. Surprisingly, it was their first time to perform in a school. How Fascinating! It was a new experience for both the audience and the performers, and it was a perfect chance to be able to relieve our stress.

 

A brief explanation of the performance is in order. It was about students preparing for their school festival, which opens every once a year. Each student at that school was busy preparing for the festival, while one student who had been ostracized couldn’t join them. The school bully always harassed his own classmates, but the students who were afraid of him could not say anything against him and could only watch from the sidelines.

 

One day, a transfer student enters the classroom and finds out the outcast’s hidden talent and asks him for the school festival together with the other friends. The transfer student led the classmates and naturally the bully drifted apart for the other classmates. This performance showed the audience that between friends there could be friendship and conflicts as well. They were trying to express the touching story and how they overcome the situation by understanding each other, which was acted by the dance they played.

 

This b-boy group dance performance really touched our hearts. They also enjoyed the play. I could notice it because on every second they were dancing with detailed movements, and by seeing their face we could see the happiness on them.

 

The performance ended with a great loud of applause. While looking up on this group, I found out that they were the best and the most famous b-boy groups in Korea. They dealt with a current social issue which grabbed our attention on the play. I hope that by seeing this performance students who actually exert violence against their friends would stop and open their eyes to how those friends feel when they are bullied in front of so many people.

 

Even though it was a very hot day, it wasn’t actually too hot due to the passions of these actors and our own. We really had a great time watching the performance. I hope we have another chance to see this b-boy group’s performance sometime.

 

 

By Jin-Sun Ryu (DG reporter)