This past Saturday afternoon I ventured out to the Incheon Arts Center, which has a really neat setup, plus a lot of cool restaurants and a virtual-reality roller coaster. In fact, I could have probably skipped the rest of my vague description and just mentioned that it had a VR roller coaster, which makes it a hands-down awesome place to be. It's dirt cheap to ride it too, but I digress..
The specific reason I was out there was to catch a 2-day break dancing competition teamed with a graffiti exhibition. They had about 8 graffiti artists who had some incredible artwork going, along with a public board where anyone could grab hold of a can and spray whatever it is they chose to spray. I threw up an EPIK tag, not wanting to get too crazy considering it was both the first time I held a can of spray paint and actually used it too. The main attraction, however, were the B-Boys (break dancers). The B-Girls actually performed earlier today, so I wasn't able to catch it. Watching them dance live was .. incredible. There really isn't anyway to say it, but they had the whole crowd hooked. My favorite part was when the music would change, which I believe happened at random, and watching the dancers adjust to the new beat or tempo. Lots of times it would happen mid-dance, and if you watched their faces you could see for a split second them adjusting their moves to suit the song. They would change so fluidly, though, that you only caught it in an instant, and it only translated in their faces; their bodies would adjust seamlessly.
I actually got some video of a few dancers, and being the adventurous soul I am wandered over to the performers' side of the stage. My friend Ryan and I started talking up this dancer from the UK, and with very little prompting whatsoever, he tried to recruit us into the world of break dancing. He introduced us to a fellow named Daniel, who gave us his card and some strong encouragement to join up. They were all really nice people, and incredibly talented too. Learning to break dance wasn't necessarily the highest priority on my to-do list coming to Korea, but I have given it a little thought and I will continue to ponder the possibility for a few days before I join a "crew." I think that a lot of the EPIK'ers were pretty excited about the prospect of learning how to break dance though, so I may come back home with a newly found set of skills. We shall see!
It very well may be one of my favorite things I have been a part of since I have been in Korea. The population it attracted was almost as fun to watch as the actual dancers and graffiti'ers, because their fashion was always top notch. The setting was perfect too, because all this new-age art and dance was taking place in the midst of a pretty classic Korean scene. The old-Korea feel of our locale tied in so well with everything. I will try and get some of those pictures and videos up and running as soon as I can.
You should do it!
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