London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

A Special Collaboration of Korean Break Dancing and Gugak

The world-renowned b-boy crew ‘Artistreet’ and ‘Gamblerz Crew’ will be joining the event in collaboration with ‘Jeong Ga Ak Hoe’, another band of the opening performers of the 2021 K-Music Festival — ADG7. The Korean Culture and Information Service’s (KOCIS) Korean Culture Scene has been holding a variety of Korean culture festivals in a bid … [Read More]

Jinjo Crew in Breakin’ Convention

Reigning Battle of the Year World Champions Jinjo Crew bring an astounding showcase of elite level breaking, acrobatics and Korean culture, led by crew leader B-Boy Wing, to the annual Breakin’ Convention festival of breakdancing. Performing Saturday 4 May & Sunday 5 May 2019 at Sadlers Wells | Rosebery Avenue | London EC1R 4TN Buy … [Read More]

Reports from the London Korean Festival 2017

LKL didn’t make it to this year’s London Korean Festival at Olympia. Saturdays are precious, and I needed to spend this particular Saturday at the KCC doing background research on the current exhibition and upcoming film series which hopefully will inform my write-ups. In-depth reports of the Festival are now available on a couple of … [Read More]

Fringe visit: Chef – Come Dine with Us

A Korean physical theatre / comedy performance involving cooking? Does that sound like Nanta? Well, yes. We loved Nanta when it came to Kingston and were happy to see what this seemingly very similar show had to offer. Judging by the poster, it certainly had a thoroughly ripped male torso to entice you. The scenario … [Read More]

Korean performances at the City of London Festival

This year’s City of London Festival has a Korean focus. And although most of the performances in the festival are of Western classical music, there is a Korean Hamlet from Yohangza Theatre Company (who do a wonderful Midsummer Night’s Dream), fusion music from Ensemble Sinawi and contemporary and street dance too. Sunwook Kim (piano) Wednesday … [Read More]

Korea’s Hip Hop heritage

Bea Lesaca of HardKnockRadio traces the origins of Korea’s Hop Hop culture. Do You Know About Hip Hop’s Korean Roots? Hip Hop in Korea has grown so much over the past 20 years. Personally, I believe that a large part of it is thanks to break dancing, which delivered this culture to a larger audience. … [Read More]

Korean B-boys battle in Brixton

The UK B-boy Championships World Finals take place in Brixton tomorrow. As usual, there’s strong competition from Korean B-boys. In the main competition – for Crews – Korea is represented by Jinjo, consisting of B-boys Wing | Skim | Hong 10 | Vero | Octopus | Stony | Fleta | F.E. This Korean contingent travel … [Read More]

Myosung Breaks Convention

For the past few years, Sadlers Wells theatre has hosted a breakdancing fest over the Mayday bank holiday weekend. And for the past few years I have only realised it was happening after it was over. This year, I’ve done slightly better (realising it is going on half way through), thanks to the Weekend FT, … [Read More]

Some of my favourite gugak fusion videos

A lazy post with a link to a performance of a number entitled “Seoul in panic” by the gugak fusion band Sorea. Modern music performed on traditional instruments, with dancing both traditional and modern. It could be taken straight from a Korea, Sparkling promotional video. It works rather well: The b-boys are from Extreme Crew. … [Read More]

B-boys promote Korean tourism at KCC

It’s now more than a year since the somewhat controversial launch of the Korea, Sparkling tourism brand. As I suspected at the time, people would get used to it in due course, and now the logo has become a familiar feature on the various tourist literature available. The branding, together with the Han Style campaign … [Read More]