Posts by Jen
I’m a Korean-American living in the bay area, I studied public health and social work in grad school, and I have an obsession for anything theater related, especially ballet and Broadway musicals. I just spent three years in NYC so I am still adjusting to normal winter weather and having a car, and most of the time, I am busy funding my passion for theater with a full-time job in healthcare public relations. On any given day, you can find me watching Project Runway, shopping, doing yoga, skipping to the theater, or looking for the perfect cocktail.
Figure Skating in the Vancouver Olympics: Yu-na Kim
Figure skating is my favorite Winter Olympic sport. Sadly, the figure skating world in the U.S. lately doesn’t have the Kristi Yamaguchis and Nancy Kerrigans I’ve loved in the past. But I will be watching this year’s women’s competition closely to support Kim Yu-Na who has become a star in Korea and in figure skating–the first star female figure skater in South Korea ever. With a whole nation’s hopes and expectations on those slim shoulders, [...] Continue »
Interview with Alex Ko, Broadway’s Billy Elliot
In October 2009, thirteen-year old Alex Ko made his debut as the star in Broadway’s Billy Elliot, the first Asian-American Billy on Broadway. I had the good fortune to speak to him about his new exciting role. Could you start out by telling us how a half-Chinese-American boy from Iowa ends up on Broadway? My dance teacher invited me to go to NY. While I was taking classes at Steps on Broadway, Ray Hesselink saw [...] Continue »
AT&T Piano Commercial Featuring Pianist Kwan Yi
In a dramatic AT&T commercial, Pianist Kwan Yi plays on AT&T touchscreen phones and a rather dramatic and beautifully played excerpt of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata. Yi has quite the education in music — he has an undergraduate degree from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, and is currently a graduate student at Juilliard. Even in this short clip, you can tell he’s very talented and rather exciting to watch. Apparently, AT&T is not the only entity [...] Continue »
Japanese Men Perform Men’s Rhythmic Gymnastics
I have always found rhythmic gymnastics much more aesthetically pleasing and less “brute force” than the standard gymnastics with the balance beam & vault. Both are amazing sports, but given my preference for dance, rhythmic gymnastics seems to require musicality and art infused with athleticism. While I was familiar with individual rhythmic gymnastics, I recently found out that there is a whole new sector of rhythmic gymnastics that is a team sport. Check out the [...] Continue »
South Pacific on Tour in San Francisco: Racism is Carefully Taught
The wonderful Broadway revival “South Pacific“, directed by the brilliant Bartlett Sher, is on tour right now in San Francisco. Written in 1949 by Rodgers and Hammerstein, most people remember this musical as a lovely romance during World War II with memorable songs such as “Some Enchanted Evening“, “There’s Nothing like a Dame” and “Wonderful Guy”. The setting of this musical is in the islands of the South Pacific, where the Americans are stationed during [...] Continue »
Shakira, Dancing with the Stars & Korean Drums
Shakira made an appearance on Dancing with the Stars last week — a very odd combination, with ballroom dancing, Shakira’s non-ballroom dancing, hip shaking dancing, and the weirdest “backup dancers”… Korean drummers! Has anyone seen such shiny han-bok? I guess they went glitzy for TV! Korean drums are really striking during performance, although I don’t like how these women were in the background for this one. If you look towards the end of the clip, [...] Continue »
Alex Ko: The New Billy Elliot on Broadway is Asian!
Thirteen year old Alex Ko has been named to be the new Billy Elliot on Broadway. A gifted dancer and half Chinese-American, Alex Ko is set to become the first Asian-American Billy Elliot in the Broadway production of the Elton John musical. Yes, even Asian boys can dream of being Billy Elliot! When Stephen Daldry, the director of the musical and movie, was asked about colorblind casting the role of Billy Elliot with a black [...] Continue »
Alex Wong on So You Think You Can Dance
So You Think You Can Dance seems to have some really good ballet dancers that end up on the show, Danny Tidwell being the most memorable in a recent season. I used to see Danny Tidwell dance with the American Ballet Theater, but sadly for us ballet fans, he left the company, and I was glad to have more chances to see him dance on TV during season three of the TV show. So when [...] Continue »
Alvin Ailey’s Second in Command, Masazumi Chaya
The Alvin Ailey Dance Company is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. I love the Alvin Ailey company — I saw them multiple times when I was in NYC (thanks to awesome student rush tickets), and when I found out they were making their yearly trek to Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall this week, and they were performing my favorite Ailey piece, Cry, I knew I had to go. People may be surprised to see that not [...] Continue »
Seoul Soo the Korean Cow Wants to be Californian
Check out the latest cow that is auditioning to be a California cow! She’s Korean, her name is Seoul Soo. (Sorta cute, no?) I’m surprised how good her Korean is (a very slight English accent but barely noticeable), at first I thought it was silly but it’s sorta endearing. Her audition page is quite elaborate — showing first in Korean, with a “translate” button. An excerpt from Soo’s bio: “Since my earliest childhood memories, I [...] Continue »
MAC Cosmetics Create Hello Kitty Makeup
MAC Cosmetics has announced that they will release their Hello Kitty makeup line on February 12, 2009. Have you seen Hello Kitty so edgy? Whether you like Hello Kitty or not — the colors in the collection seem a bit too bubble gum pink for me — the packaging is really cute, I may just be convinced to buy something from the collection. Expected to be one of the most popular makeup lines for Mac, [...] Continue »
Prostitution Near Bases Were Permitted by US and South Korean Governments
A group of ex-prostitutes in South Korea have come forward in bold move accusing their former government leaders of enabling prostitution, and encouraging it near the US bases in South Korea. While prostitution is often commonly found near military bases, the shocking part of this story is that both the U.S. government and the South Korean government were actively involved in this activity (prostitution is illegal in Korea.) South Korean government leaders actively supported the [...] Continue »
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