Mirror Mode, Cover Dance, Challenge… The charm of K-pop dance that Lia Kim talks about [Report file]

Lia Kim.

He is the co-founder and chief choreographer of 1Million Dance Studio.

'One Million Dance Studio', a dance creative group he founded in 2014, is running a YouTube channel with a powerful influence. It is ranked 4th in the country.

Lia Kim won world dance competitions in the rocking and popping genres, and worked as a dance trainer and choreographer for K-pop idols at JYP and CJ Entertainment.

He choreographed numerous hit songs such as Sunmi's '24 Hours', 'Gashina' and Hwasa's 'Maria'.

These days, he is also active as a judge on SBS's choral performance battle program 'Sing for Gold'.

Not long ago, with the K-pop cover dance craze, more and more universities are opening K-pop dance courses in the United States, and a book analyzing K-pop dance academically ('K-pop Dance: Fandoming Yourself on Social Media') was published for the first time.

In K-pop, dance is not just added to the music, but perfectly combined with the music to become a key element.

As evidenced by the popularity of programs such as 'Swoopa' and 'Smanpa', dancers who used to play an auxiliary role as 'backup dancers' are now attracting attention from the front of the stage.

Dance genres like tango and hip-hop are also names of dance genres.

'K-pop'

When a new K-pop song is released, in addition to the music video, a 'dance performance video (choreography video)' with beautiful dance moves is released.

Do you remember the article that Blackpink's choreography video for 'Shutdown' recorded 10 million views on YouTube within half a day of its release?

Two months later, it is currently recording 78.72 million views.

This choreography video becomes popular, and cover dance videos are pouring in from all over the world with fans dancing along.

There are also many 'mirror mode' videos and dance tutorial videos that make it easier to dance by reversing the left and right of the choreography video.

We asked Lia Kim about what makes K-pop dance choreography different, why people around the world are passionate about K-pop dance, and the charm of K-pop dance.

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A. The fact that the group dance has developed.

Also, it can be mentioned that the upper body and hand movements have been developed.

Western dance emphasizes the movement of the lower body and legs, whereas Eastern dance emphasizes the movement of the upper body and arms, and K-pop dance seems to reflect that characteristic.

Korean dancers use their hands a lot.

The dance is very well organized and neatly grouped.

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(*As an example of 'choreography up to the hair', New Jeans' 'Attention' was introduced in the SBS 8 News Report video.)

A. Koreans are characterized by being perfectly prepared before going on stage.

While foreign dancers tend to think that they can improvise on stage as they feel, Korean dancers tend to think that improvisation is dangerous.

There are many cases in which the gaze, fingertips, and even the eyes are perfectly prepared in advance before going up.

A. It's because it's easy for people to remember and everyone can follow along.

It seems that Korean people are very excited, so they follow the artist's dance and want to do it together.

So, it didn't end with the artist showing off on stage, but it started with the desire to communicate with the public and dance together.

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A. These days, rather than directly watching a stage performance, fans often watch performances on monitors or small cell phone screens.

As a result, I come to choreograph the choreography focusing on what is shown on the monitor.

Consider how to make the artist's expression or gesture look attractive when close-up.

The movements that can be shown in this square that come into the monitor, when close-up, look full and work while paying attention to the choreography movements in it.

(** In Lia Kim's book, 'My Short Black Hair', there is an anecdote that he pointed to a computer monitor at his colleagues and said, 'Now this is our stage'.)

A. Friends who run YouTube in France collaborated at the time .

They said let's do it, so we filmed a dance video together in Insa-dong.

The videos uploaded by those friends quickly garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

It was around 2013 or 2014.

If it were to stand on stage, even if there were really many audiences, 10,000 people could come like this, but when I uploaded it to YouTube, hundreds of thousands or millions of people could see my dance.

I got the feeling that this was a bigger stage.

I was also thrilled that the time has come when far more people can see my dance than on the offline stage, not only people around me, but also people on the other side of the world.

These days, isn't it really possible to share with people on the other side of the world in 1 second?

I thought I wanted to share a lot of dancing with more people.

A. These days, in a way, it seems that popularity quickly flared up through social media and then cooled down quickly.

In that respect, in order to remain in people's memory, a more intense impact or point action is required.

Too much content pours in short bursts.

These days, when a new song is released, the activity period is shortened to one week.

In the early days, when I released a new song, I worked like this for a month, then a few months, but these days, I end my activities after a week.

We prepared for a long time, but in order to be loved by fans in a short period of time, we need to show a performance that is different from others and has an impact.

So even on our 1Million YouTube channel, 4 dance videos are uploaded a day.

Content circulation is so fast that it is difficult to create something memorable in it, so I seem to find a lot of ways to appeal to my own originality, personality, and charm.

A. Honey J released an album not too long ago.

A rapping friend participated as a featured singer and came out with Honey J's album.

Just looking at that, it seems like something really big is about to change.

Dancers don’t just play the role of supporting singers, but dancers can become active actors.

That's what I dreamed of, and the reason I started 1Million Dance Studio.

The time is coming when I can realize my choreography, my ideas, and my ideas directly on stage and in front of the fans.

In fact, even now, I think we are in the process of such a change taking place.

A. The strength of K-pop is its splendid performances.

K-pop artists are basically people with excellent performance skills.

Performance is the 'basic skill'.

So, when all singers release an album, they release a performance video in addition to the music video, and that is also to communicate with the fans.

Show your moves well so that fans can follow you.

That's why there are exceptionally many fans who cover K-pop dances, and cover dance videos uploaded by fans are pouring out.

A. First of all, it's so pretty, when you see it.

The word 'idol' means someone I really want to be like.

Wanting to be like, wanting to imitate, wearing clothes, eyes, makeup, I think all those elements are in K-pop culture.

I have a desire to imitate everything of my favorite idol.

I, myself, have had the experience of seeing students wearing the same clothes I wore the day before while taking dance classes.

If you look at the cover dance videos, there are a lot of them wearing the same idol clothes and copying them.

Dancing is also a dance, but fashion, facial expression, makeup, these things all come together to become a performance.

All elements are included in the performance, and all of those things are combined to make it cool, attractive, and pretty, so fans all over the world follow it.

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A. To be honest, I'm cautious because I might look arrogant, but I think our dancers and Korean choreographers really have the best choreography skills in the world.

And his ability to envision a performance is really top-notch.

Here, the training system that raises the ability is really well organized, and the planning and creativity are excellent.

Even 10 years ago, there were many cases in which Korean dancers watched foreign dancers and artists and followed them, but these days it is not the case at all.

I have the idea that we have to lead the performance.

I don't look for references among foreign artists.

There are many Korean references.

Korean choreographers have excellent planning skills, to the extent that we now have the idea of ​​creating a new trend all over the world.

(Photo = Provided by Big Hit Music, Yonhap News)