Basic Viewing Etiquette

Viewing Mindset

Before heading to the performance hall, knowing the details of the performance will help you appreciate the performance even better,

Basic Etiquette

• You may not bring cameras, food and drinks, flower bouquets, etc. into the performance hall. You should check such items at the storage in the lobby of the performance hall before entering.
• Items that may create a great deal of noise, such as shopping bags and watches with alarms, and coats that take up a lot of space should be checked outside before entering the performance hall.
• While you may bring your mobile phone with you into the performance hall, you are asked to turn your phone off before entering.

Dress Code

• While most performance halls require formal attire to enter as a rule, we simply ask that you come dressed in simple yet proper attire.
• This is basic dress etiquette that ensures that you and your fellow audiences can enjoy a pleasant experience at the performance.

Admission Time

• As a rule, latecomers are not allowed into the performance hall until the intermission.
• We recommend that you arrive 30 minutes before the start of the performance to check your seats, and that you take your seats 10 minutes before the start of the performance.
• While latecomers are not allowed into the performance hall until the intermission as a rule, they will sometimes be permitted to enter in between each piece. In such cases, you are advised to find the closest empty seat and quietly view the performance until the intermission, after which you may find and take your proper seat.

Children Admission

• It is common courtesy to leave children who are under 7 years of age with other family members or at a daycare facility before coming to the performance hall.
• However, in rare cases such as children’s plays or ballet performances for children, the permitted admission age is lowered. Such cases will be promoted in advance through the center’s website or on flyers for the performances, so please check in advance before having your children to accompany you.

Viewing Etiquette in Performance Halls

Concert Hall

• Sounds such as coughing, rustling, and whispering in the concert hall will cause you and your fellow audiences to leave with nothing but frustration.
• The rule that mobile phones should be turned off before entering bears repeating.

Viewing Plays

• Unlike movies, which amplify and play recorded sounds through speakers, plays rely on the actor’s genuine voice to reach the audiences seated all the way in the back. As such, even the smallest of noise can interfere with the actor’s performance and the audience’s appreciation.
• The greatest courtesy that can be shown to a play is diligently viewing it and thinking deeply on the issues that it raises on humanity and the world, thereby engaging in serious conversation with the work.
• Rather than focusing on manners and rules without substance, attending the play with such mindsets and behaviors will allow you to naturally observe proper etiquette. Such lessons also apply to other genres of performance art, such as dance and music.

Viewing Exhibitions

• You may not take a picture of or touch a displayed work no matter how much it impresses you.
• If you find yourself captivated by a work, common courtesy dictates that leaving it alone so that other people can appreciate it as well is the best way to prove your love for it.
• As photography produces a flash, which will interfere with your fellow visitors’ ability to appreciate and admire the exhibition, please refrain from taking pictures.
• Of course, this naturally applies for works that are displayed outside as well!
• If you absolutely must take a picture, you must receive permission from the host of the exhibition beforehand. Please ask a guide at the entrance of the exhibition hall for information or contact the host organization before arriving at the exhibition. If you are permitted to take pictures in advance, you are advised to prepare photographic film that allows you to take clear pictures even without using the flash function.

Intermissions

• During intermissions, the lobby is an ideal place to exchange greetings with familiar faces as well as socialize with new people.
• Please remember to speak in quiet tones that are just loud enough for the other person to hear, and refrain from making too much noise.

Applause Etiquette

Symphonies and Concertos

Please applaud after all movements have concluded.

Vocal Music

• If you take a look at the program, you’ll find that songs are connected in sets of 3 to 4. It is advised that you applaud each time a set concludes.
• Please applaud after all movements have concluded.

Instrumental Performance

If the performance is a single movement or an opuscule, then you may applaud whenever a song concludes.

Opera

Whenever an aria or duet concludes, you should applaud and yell ‘Bravo’ to cheer and voice your appreciation for the singers.

Court Music

It is recommended that you applaud from when the bak conductor enters to the point where the conductor greets the audience as a form of listening to the music, and when the bak conductor strikes the bak after the music concludes, courtesy requires you to clap in response.

Classical Music

The music will end quietly without a fixed signal, so you should wait until the reverberations have faded somewhat, and then begin applauding.

Folk Music

• In folk music, audiences may express their emotions with relatively more freedom.
• For instance, in the case of pansori or samulnori, cries of “Yoohoo!”, “Good!”, “That’s it!”, “Hurrah!”, and “That’s the way!” or fervent applause can raise the mood of the performers and audience alike.
• Of course, this does not mean that you should clap and yell out at random intervals. Instead, you should try to gradually understand when and how you should express how the music makes you feel.
• This is because excessive exclamations or mistimed applauses may end up cutting off the flow of the music and prevent your fellow viewers from appreciating the performance.

Korean Creative Dance and Contemporary Dance

• You must never applaud during the performance.
• Korean creative dance and contemporary dance both seek to show you a single deep inner world. As such, any applause may end up instantly breaking the immersion and ruin the dance.

Ballet

• Ballet features a piece of music called the divertissement that is not connected to the overall plot of the ballet or the structure of its dance, during which viewers simply enjoy the dancing.
• The soloists (main dancers) will show off high level techniques in grand pas, pas de deux, etc. that have nothing to do with the plot. Each scene is a separate dance, and you may applaud when each dance ends.
• Generally, the divertissement of the soloist or the corps de ballet show off the graceful movements of the dancers in each scene. It is customary to applaud whenever this happens.