Week 7: Pretty

30 September 2019 – 6 October 2019

• Last dance class for X1’s “Flash”

Like the week before, Jun and I decided to get some practice in before our last dance class this week. We tried to recall the new parts we learnt from last week and while I had some trouble remembering, Jun helped me a lot and in the end, we managed to piece the different parts together. Here is our final practice video:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0m936vjzz5bc130/WhatsApp%20Video%202019-09-29%20at%2021.27.23.mp4?dl=0

For the dance class this week, Jun and I, as well as our instructor wanted to match colours for the last practice and we decided to go with white and red. We were inspired by one of X1’s stage outfits (as shown in the featured image for this blog post). This is the reason why this week’s blog post is titled “Pretty”, because we all made an effort to dress up for this last class.

Since we already got the steps down, this week’s class was just us going through runs after runs of the full choreography. After every single run, we went through certain steps together again to either make the moves look nicer or be more in time with the music.

During this process, I was a little disappointed in myself because I could feel that I was quite tense and my body was not moving as well as I wanted it to. I think I was nervous because I did not want to make any mistakes as this was already the last session. My desire for perfection made me overthink things a lot more and I felt that there were moments when I blanked out as a result instead. I was making mistakes even though I had practiced beforehand and I felt demoralised for a while. 

However, things lightened up after a water break and I told myself to just enjoy the session. Unfortunately, our instructor was sick and could not dance much with us but she joined us for the first part of the song. Despite the fact that both Jun and I were tired after the runs and the difficulties I faced, the energy while we were doing the dance for the last time was good and I am proud to say that this was our ‘prettiest’ run:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a8go6a512yl9v04/2019-10-03%2001.22.13.MOV?dl=0

Thinking back on the dance experience, I think I can pat myself on the back for completing the challenge. I joined an external dance class for the first time and learnt a full dance choreography within a short span of four weeks. From the study sessions before the dance classes and the Ba Kut Teh duppers (dinner + supper) after class, Jun was with me every step of the way. I doubt I would have the courage to try out an open dance class alone and she helped me to memorise the steps so I am very grateful that she agreed to join me on this journey. It had been a great opportunity for two friends to share their love for dancing and K-pop with each other. Our instructor was also really nice and patient with us and we were happy to have gotten dance lessons from her. 

This concludes the dance part of my project. Hopefully, through this K-pop dance segment, I was able to show people that K-pop dance is not as difficult to pick up as they may think and it is actually very fun to do because there are just so many dance styles that can be mashed up into a single song. Personally, I also achieved the goal of celebrating my identity as a K-pop fan by doing a dance from a group whom I have watched progress on a survival show. Furthermore, I realised that there is still a special role for dance schools like this even though people can learn K-pop dances on their own, because they offer a safe space for K-pop fans to learn together and share their love for K-pop dances. Now, I am excited to embark on the next stage of my assignment. There are interesting things I am planning to do that are linked to the Korean language and dramas coming up, so do look forward to them!