A Korean Dancical: Sachoom


I saw the advertisement for Sachoom one day on television and thought that it looked good, good enough for me to actually go and buy the tickets to watch this Korean dancical at the Esplanade. So it was off to the nearest Sistic ticket counter to purchase the (cheapest) tickets. The thing about Sistic that I find unreasonable is that it is the only ticket operator for such things, and they charge an additional S$3 fee on top of the ticket cost, which is really taking advantage of their monopoly.

Anyways on to the actual story, Sachoom or Love Dance is the abbreviation of "Dance When You are in Love" in Korean, is a unusual non-verbal musical production about the story of three friends, Jun, Sun and Bin. It depicts their lives and their interactions, from the time they are babies all the way to their twenties. They take us through their life experiences through various genres of dance such as hip-hop, jazz, techno, break dance, pop dance, modern ballet, contemporary dance and much more.  Although it is a non-verbal musical production, there are a few songs sang by the dancers. The entire story is expressed through dance movements that are vibrant and powerful, with no dialogue throughout the story.

This ‘dancical’ was the first Korean production to have been performed at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, receiving international acclaim., and has seen over 1300 performances to date since the first Sachoom performance in October 2004, taking the record (in 2007) as the most internationally performed musical production in a short period of time as it toured 32 cities.

If you like Korean culture, and think that K-pop groups like Super Junior and Girl’s Generation are awesome dancers, you will be even more impressed with the guy who was once their trainer – Choi Him Chan, who plays one of the main characters Jun. In addition, Choi Him Chan Kim’s co-stars have a vast resume as welll: for instance, Hyo Jung, who plays the female lead Sun, worked as a choreographer to numerous K-pop stars before joining Sachoom.

Sachoom or Love Dance is the abbreviation of “Dance When You are in Love” in Korean, is a unusual non-verbal musical production about the story of three friends, Jun, Sun and Bin. It depicts their lives and their interactions, from the time they are babies all the way to their twenties. They take us through their life experiences through various genres of dance such as hip-hop, jazz, techno, break dance, pop dance, modern ballet, contemporary dance and much more.

Overall, this ‘dancical’ is entertaining and enjoyable; with the dancers have their quirky sense of humor: there is a lot of interaction going on between the dancers and the audience, especially those sitting in the front row. Each of the dancers has their own charm and charisma. Before the show begun, one of the dancers invited a girl on stage, where she had to dance a silly dance in order to ‘help’ the dancer. At the end of it, she was rewarded with the Sachoom t-shirt. It was truly a rewarding and enjoyable experience watching this ‘dancical’!
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