Senior Erica Yoo has woken up before dawn on Thanksgiving morning for the past three years. This year she slipped into her hanbok, a traditional Korean outfit and prepared to dance in the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade.
“Our rehearsals are always at 5 or 5:30 a.m., so we’re up by 2:30 a.m. to get ready and get all our costumes on,” said Yoo. “You rehearse once, and then you eat breakfast, and then you’re on for the real show. It’s superquick-paced, but it’s so fun.”
According to Dr. Aedeok Lee, founder of the Chicago Korean Dance Company, also known as CKDC, the company aims to share Korean culture and dance with mainstream America.
Every year, the company focuses on different aspects of Korean dance in their routine.
According to CKDC secretary Nancy Cho, the company’s youth group, which consists of 20 high school students, will perform a dance called Samgomu that Lee choreographed for this year’s parade.
“Samgomu translates to ‘three drum dance,’ and it’s a dance where there’s three standing drums around a dancer,” Cho said.
According to Yoo, the dance is performed in a row, with one drum placed behind the dancer and one on either side.
To participate in the parade each year, CKDC submits a form through the parade’s website detailing their company name, the number of participants and a brief description of their act, including links to YouTube videos of past performances.
According to Dan Mulka, executive director of the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade Foundation, videos are part of the initial screening process for staged performances.
“We make everybody submit a YouTube video where we can see their actual performance and make sure, one, it’s right for TV, and, two, it will hold everybody’s attention,” Mulka said.
Typically, 14 to 16 staged performances are chosen each year out of about 85 applications submitted, Mulka said.
Staged performances last around two minutes each and occur during the first hour of the parade.
This year’s parade is scheduled to take place on Nov. 28 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., starting at State Street, from Ida B. Wells Drive to Randolph Street in downtown Chicago, and will be broadcast live on PlutoTV.
“Our goal is to tell as many stories as we can as people watch the parade,” said Mulka. “Even though this is a national parade, we like to highlight Chicago and showcase all the cultures.”
Sophomore Amy Yoon joined CKDC the summer before her freshman year. Her first performance as a member of CKDC was in last year’s Thanksgiving parade.
“That was kind of nerve-wracking that my first performance would be such a big one,” said Yoon. “But it was really nice.”
The night before the parade, the company books hotel rooms in Chicago to give dancers an opportunity to see the city.
“It’s like a little sleepover with all your friends, and then it’s right by the Christkindlmarket,” said Yoo. “So it’s a tradition that we all go.”
Preparing for the upcoming parade has been bittersweet for Yoo because it will be her last performance as a member of CKDC before graduating from the company in December.
“I am extremely fortunate to end my CKDC journey on such a momentous experience,” said Yoo. “As a young dancer, my one dream was to perform [Samgomu] one day.”