Last November, spontaneous melodies and dance moves broke the quiet, serious facade of the campus, putting smiles on the faces of students hurrying by, some stopping to appreciate the performances.
The Ewha University Center for the Performing Arts held the Ewha Friends Busking program last month. The program was created to use the campus as a stage to showcase talented Ewha students willing to show their performance art.
Busking events were held from Nov. 14 to 30, every Tuesday and Thursday, twice between classes at various places such as in front of the ECC valley, ECC Samsung Hall, the Student Union Building and the Emerson Chapel. The performance was held at different places according to the time slot and genre of busking, with art performances such as miming, dancing and acting near the ECC while music was performed at other places.
The program also awarded students depending on how much cheers and attention they received from the audience and gave four awards: a ‘talent’ award for those who demonstrated witty and creative spirit, a ‘communication’ award for those who communicated with the audience and received the most cheers, and a ‘body’ award for the team that had an impressive theme. Other prizes such as concert tickets and musical tickets along with souvenirs were given out to all participants.
Fifteen teams participated, with the content ranging from cover dances to even pansori, a Korean genre of musical storytelling. Despite the cold weather, 53 participants showed their passion and talents, catching people’s attention. One of those teams was Yeonimi, the last team to perform for the program which Ewha Voice also listened to attentively.
Yeonimi, consisted of two students, Kim So-yeon and Han Ye-lim both from the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, sang Perfect by Ed Sheeran in front of the Student Union Building as the finale of the program.
“We have been interested in singing since we were freshmen and we got to sing together for the first time in this year’s College of Engineering’s festival,” Kim said. “After we saw the poster that stated they were receiving applications for busking on campus, we thought to give it a shot too!”
The team went on sharing their experience of preparing and performing for the program.
“Although we were both busy doing our individual work, it was fun to meet up and practice together,” Kim said. “I loved especially how Ye-lim practiced playing guitar and told me how to put harmonies by giving me guidelines ― it made practicing much easier.”
However, as the program was a guerilla-styled show and lacked equipment, Kim added that the program could be improved by systemizing and providing more facilities to the participants.
“I believe that the show then can be a greater success,” Kim said.
Kim further shared that she have always dreamt of busking as a university student when she watched popular audition programs like Super Star K in high school.
“Though the Ewha Friends Busking was a short time, I am willing to take part again next time for it was a great experience to fulfill my wishes through such opportunity,” Kim said.