Synchronisation and rhythm clashed when 40 Nigerian dancers took on K-Pop dancing at the 2022 K-Pop Dance Academy.
Hosted annually by the Korea Culture Center Nigeria, the K-Pop Dance Academy trains Nigerian dancers, and K-Pop fans in the art of K-Pop Dance, with the aid of professional K-Pop choreographers such as Jay Kim, who has worked in 40 countries and 73 cities.
Kim who arrived just in time last July to sit in jury at the 2022 K-Pop Dance Competition was uncertain of what to expect. That both nations cultures differ was clear as day. But a preview video of Nigerian dancers prior to his visit reassured him. “From the videos I saw that Nigeria has a lot of good dancers.”
He had a point. As with every other African dancer, Nigerian dancers have got natural rhythm, flexibility and energy. In fact, Nigerian dancers from the academy such as Elevatorz dance group, Praise Nelson, Miracle Nelson and … enjoy thriving dance careers. Winner of the 2015 World K-Pop Competition, Praise Nelson, a fast-rising choreographer gained national fame at the 2020 Big Brother Naija Show; Miracle Nelson currently in Korea recently released a video with his K-Pop team; … is arguably the first national K-Pop Competition winners to release a K-Pop Dance music video, and Elevatorz, familiar entertainment in the Abuja events space is opening a Trado – Hip Hop Concert titled Renaissance later this August.
Kim had nothing to worry about.
Well, not quite. He hit bumps in the first few classes as the heavily synchronized movements of K-Pop clashed with the energetic, flexible and ‘personality’ movements of Nigerian dancers.
story, and each story has a type of dance to communicate to the audience.
‘‘I had been dancing before I got into K-Pop in 2015. K-Pop style is different and I like being versatile. I like all styles of dance, traditional, contemporary dance etc.,” said Oyene.
