Music as an aspect of living and social integration globally is still regarded as the most social of the arts. It is an art involved in a great variety of social contexts – the home and and wider society.
However, in the 1970s, Dance-pop as a popular music subgenre emerged.
Before then, K-Pop which stands for Korean popular music is the mainstream music that originated in South Korea. The roots of K-pop began in the 1950s, but the modern type of type of K-Pop music was formed around the 1990s.
With a distinct idea to promote cooperation through the expansion of cultural exchanges between Korea and Nigeria, Korean government over 40 years ago established Korean Cultural Centre in Nigeria (KCCN). And among activities aimed at engendering greater bilateral cooperation, the Korean government introduced K-Pop. Since the event piloted through its K-Pop academy has been tonic to many young people with outstanding Nigerians gaining opportunity to travel for international stage performance in Korea.
Hosted annually by KCCN, 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.
The annual K-Pop Dance show for 2022 took place in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital amidst fanfare and colourful displays.
According to organisers, the K-Pop idea was to promote understanding and strengthen bilateral relationship between Nigeria and Korea through cultural exchange programmes and activities.
Lead trainer Kim at the 2022 K-Pop Dance Competition spoke shortly after the event said Nigeria and Koreacultures differ.
He said, “From the videos I saw that Nigeria has a lot of good dancers. I have been watching how Nigerians dance while in Korea, so blending the style of Korean dance and that of Nigeria was never difficult.
“They are aspects that are similar between both Korea and Nigeria and happy working with young people with such amazing talents within a short time. We trained for just few weeks before our performance.”
‘‘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,” one of the Nigerian dancers who identified himself simply as Joseph Uhiene said.
No fewer than 31 graduating students took part in K-Pop academy 2022 class with four of them including Aneni Cordelia Chidi Ivie, Damina Jethro Luka, Joseph Uhiene and Delight Majesty emerging tops.
Luka who spoke to Blueprint thereafter said she was ecstatic with her input and training by their instructors.
“I feel excited to be part of this wonderful team especially with the way our instructors handled the training. This is one programme I’m so excited about,” she said.
KCCN director of the Embassy of Republic of Korea Kim, Chang Ki said K-Pop presents one of the rich cultural exchanges between Nigeria and Korea Republic.
The K-Pop academy for 2022 between July 25 and August 18.
K-Pop dance event is an annual dance competition where dance teams choose from listed K-Pop songs,
Abinitio in a competitive atmosphere, the finalists were selected by professional dancers and instructors.
