K-pop Has Invaded An American Dance Academy!
You may or may not have seen this video yet. I know Allkpop reported it and I'm sure its made its way through various other circuits and K-pop entertainment websites but I need to mention here, on my blog, because of how completely awesome it is
There's a dance academy by the name of Groove Nation that runs out of Vancouver, Washington. It was founded by Beau Sem, an award-winning choreographer who has worked with several other well known choreographers, one being none other than, Shaun Evaristo.
Now, all my K-poppers, you should start making the connection here because we all know who Shaun Evaristo is, right?
In case, you aren't sure, watch this.
Click to viewThat's right, Evaristo has worked with our very own YG Entertainment on several occasions as well as Uhm Jung Hwa. Does Beau Sem realize that the mere association with Evaristo gives him 5,000,000,000,294,247,593,289,575,932,947,573,098 cool points? He'll find out soon enough, I'm sure.
Anyhow, one of Groove Nation's instructors/choreographers, Julio Fuentes, put together a K-pop tribute routine. While consisting of mostly original choreography, he did use some of our favorite K-pop dances in the routine. Groove Nation got to showcase this routine at Heritage High School in Washington and it was freaking epic. Not only is the choreography intricate and smooth but the dancers from this company are really good!
The songs they used were:
I My Me Mine - 4minute
HUH - 4minute
Nobody - Wonder Girls
Lollipop - Big Bang & 2NE1
Muzik - 4minute
Bang! - After School
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Lee Hyori
All aspects of this routine rocked but personally, the last two songs made me squeal like a fangirl. All the attitude coming off these kids peaked during those songs and I was so proud and overjoyed.
What does this mean for K-pop? What does this mean for the Hallyu Wave? It means that K-pop is going to take over the world!
Nah, probably not but it does mean that K-pop is at least making it way across the globe. People are paying attention and broadening their musical horizons. With videos like this popping up on the Internet, K-pop, as well as J-Pop and C-Pop, will be known worldwide and appreciated as a legitimate genre of music in no time... assuming the plagiarism scandals die out. But that's another blog post.
For now, enjoy the fierceness of these Americans as they channel the spirits of our beloved Idols. :D
This is a "The Ramblings of a Displaced Korean" post.