As the sun starts to set on Speedway, students gather around as multiple dancers in coordinated colors wait patiently in perfect formation for the beat to drop.
K-pop, or Korean pop, dominates as a global music genre that operates through the art of spectacle with catchy melodies, intricate choreography and vast fan culture. At UT, the Austin Korean Dance Crew turns the phenomenon local, producing performances that showcase the cultural force through public shows and social media while promoting student community and belonging.
Most KDC members grew up surrounded by dance, but eventually found themselves in the musical realm of K-pop during lockdown.
“I grew up dancing ballet and contemporary,” Kelsey Ong, advertising junior, said. “So did, I would say, a lot of the people in KDC.”
The crew frequently releases K-pop dance covers on social media, where they coordinate everything down to videography to match the original media.
“It’s come with time, definitely learning how to manage our camera,” Kayla Martinez, a psychology junior and secretary of the KDC, said. “If you see past videos, it’s been really stable. And then we’ve learned newer techniques, as well as studying other K-pop dance groups online, and we just get inspiration.”
KDC doesn’t shy away from public performances such as random dance plays, where participants start dancing to a randomized song in a flash mob style.
“It’s really cool because you have people who don’t know of each other, and they’re just dancing next to each other,” Ong said. “Then there are also moments where they’ll start trying to do the actual formation with you, these strangers that you don’t know, and trying to do duet parts. I think that’s just also really a nice point of connection for everyone.”
At a large school like UT, members see their shared love for K-pop as a way to connect with one another despite differing backgrounds.
“It was hard being open about my likings (for K-pop), because that was my music taste, that was my inspiration for my style, my clothes style, my dance style, some of my likes and dislikes,” Martinez said. “I felt judged my entire life because of that, but once I came to UT, where it was definitely way more diverse than where I’m from, I see (that) it’s more open.”
KDC continues to captivate audiences through public performances across campus. They became a staple act at UNITY, a showcase coordinated by Omega Phi Gamma that spotlights Asian American talent.
“I would say they’re one of the few groups (in) every talent show that is super inclusive,” Jael Smith, junior biology major, said. “They have a broad range demographically, and that’s what I really like, because they all connect with the music.”
For the crew, they said seeing students bond with one another over music and dance, despite the language barrier, is what drives all their performances.
“Even if you’re looking past the fact that it’s music in a different language, different culture, you’ll just walk by Speedway and see a bunch of people dancing together and having fun,” Martinez said. “Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?”
