“K-pop Dancing on Campus, LUKA on the Experience of K-pop Dance”

Photo courtesy of|Lakehead University K-pop club LUKA (LUKA)

The small city of Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada. K-pop music plays in a Lakehead University classroom. Songs by Red Velvet, TWICE, and NCT DREAM play in succession, and movements are copied in time with choreography videos on smartphones.

In this column, we take a look at a scene of K-pop dance taking place on overseas campuses through an interview with LUKA (Lakehead University K-Pop Association), the K-pop club at Lakehead University.

We asked Erica Cao of LUKA, who first encountered K-pop through Girls’ Generation’s music, what she thinks about K-pop dance.

“K-pop choreography is a form in which diverse dance styles, musical rhythms, and the meaning of the lyrics come together. In the past I just mimicked the sounds of the Korean lyrics, but now I have become interested in the structure and pronunciation of Hangeul and can recognize basic letters.”

What Erica says shows that K-pop choreography goes beyond simply dancing to music and leads to a process of understanding language and culture together. She also says, “The gaze of a fan watching the stage and the experience of a participant dancing directly are different from each other.” When watching a performance, one tends to look closely at the precision of the choreography, the live singing, and even facial expressions, but at the very moment of dancing, one feels it is fine not to be perfect. In this way, K-pop dance can be seen as starting as an object of observation and analysis and, through embodied participation, becoming a process of understanding idol music and stages more deeply and connecting as a fan.

The story of LUKA president Elizabeth Jones leads in another direction. Having trained in ballet, the reason she began learning K-pop dance was a little special.

“I needed a way to keep in touch with my cousin living in another country. So we started learning the same K-pop choreography together. Even though we were far apart, we could share the same experience.” She continues, “K-pop dance is also an activity that connects me with my younger sister, who is ten years younger. We learn choreography together every day, enjoy the music, encourage each other, and make good memories.”

For Elizabeth, K-pop dance is an experience that connects people rather than a mere hobby. In the process of learning the same music and the same choreography together, exchanges with distant family continue, and different generations naturally come to share a single experience. It is striking that K-pop dance plays a role in connecting people across regions, borders, and generations in this way.

Another interviewee, Emma Jones, puts it this way.

“I first started learning K-pop choreography as a dancer. In doing so, I naturally became a fan of K-pop music.”

What Emma says reveals another appeal of K-pop dance. Some begin dancing because they are fans, but conversely, others encounter K-pop through dance and, in the process, naturally become fans of K-pop dance.

Members of LUKA say, “When you dance, you feel far more deeply connected to the music, and it feels as if you are dancing with the idols themselves.” For them, K-pop dance is more than learning moves to music; it is a new mode of encounter in which fans around the world connect and meet K-pop stars.

Recently, K-pop dance clubs and cover-dance communities have been growing rapidly on university campuses overseas.

As K-pop music plays and people dance to its rhythms, another cherished culture extends there across space and generations.

Fittingly, at the 98th Academy Awards held on the 16th, there was news that the Netflix animation ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters (K-Pop Demon Hunters)’ won the award for Best Animated Feature. The fact that a work embodying K-pop’s music and performance was recognized on the world’s film stage was a very moving moment for me personally. I hope the brilliant choreography and performance in this work will continue to unfold into new dances and stories on university campuses and in communities around the world.

Lastly, I extend my gratitude to the members of LUKA who have loved Korean culture and K-pop dance.

Thank you, LUKA.