Josephine Swan never imagined that her stay in South Korea would lead her into K-Pop's glittering and challenging world. Each day, she encounters new hurdles and adventures that fate has in store for her and her four team members. Between gruelling...
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My heart pounded loudly in my chest while my eyes found the wall as if of their own accord, instead of the suddenly larger-looking audience. Like the months before, I felt their attentive and critical eyes on each of us and only focused more on the spot on the insignificant wall above their heads. My long hair was by now stuck to my bare back, most of which was presented to the audience by my twisted position. Hannah and Su-a were standing not far beside me, little drops of sweat also shining on their foreheads, glueing their tied hair into thick strands. Jinny stood offset behind me, but still clearly visible to Yang Hyun-suks.
Shoulders sideways, smack it, smack it in the air.
Our arms moved in sync with the first line of Beyoncé's rap song, angling higher up our bodies to our heads with each new beat as our hips twerked in time with the music and our arms.
Legs movin' side to side, smack it in the air
Legs movin' side to side, smack you in the air
Our bodies turned with the next verses and one after the other we began to kneel, swinging our hips, according to the order of our positioning, before we straightened up again with several quick movements of our knees and arms, adapting to the beat. Following the music, Hannah and I pranced into the second row, leaving Su-a and Jinny in the front.
Shoulders sideways, smack it, smack it in the air
Smack it, smack it in the air, legs movin' side to side
Smack it, smack it in the air, smack it, smack it in the air
Synchronously we raised our right arms, the left ones bent with the hand on our hips. Following the singer's demanding commands, we moved to the sound of the music before jumping again to take up sideways positions. Our legs began to alternately bend and stretch with the rhythm, underlining the powerful beats of the song just by the wiggling of our buttocks. Our hands rested on our flexed thighs and turned back towards the audience. With the alternating arm, leg and hip movements, Su-a and Jinny slowly pulled themselves back out of the foreground until we were all back on one level.
Wave your hands side to side, put it in the air
Wave your hands side to side, put it in the air
Clap, clap, clap like you don't care
Smack that, clap, clap, clap like you don't care (I know you care)
With a swinging motion of our heads, Hannah and I took the lead and let the other two slide back. My legs seemed to vibrate under the hard movements, my arms swinging around my body like elastic rubber. With each new line of the song, the movements and dance steps became more outlandish but still adapted to the singer's descriptions through her lyrics. By now, we took up a large part of the entire dance floor with our movements, without impeding the others or ourselves.
Clap, clap, clap, clap it
We joined up again at the start of the first verse and switched positions. Jinny was at the front, while Su-a and I were on either side of her and Hannah brought up the rear.
Foot up, my foot up, hold up now my foot up (spinnin')
I'm spinnin' my foot up, foot up, yeah, my foot up (spinnin')
I'm spinnin' my foot up, put my foot down, yeah, my hands up
My hands up, my hands up (flexin'), flexin' while my hands up
My hands up, my hands up, I stand up with my hands up
Then I put up, my hands up, I put up, my hands up
I put up, my hands up then I'm spinnin' all my hands up (spinnin')
Spinnin' while my hands up (spinnin'), spinnin' while my hands up (spinnin')
Spinnin' while my hands up then I'm tippin' all my hands up
I'm spinnin', I'm spinnin', I'm spinnin' while my hands up (spinnin')
I'm spinnin', I'm spinnin', I'm spinnin' while my hands up (drank)
Su-a and I slid our hands along our thighs, which were bending more and more into the depths, and kept our heads always straight and turned towards the audience, before we finally let ourselves slide onto the floor for a short moment, only to turn our bodies immediately afterwards. With our backs to the floor, we bent our left legs before stretching our right legs straight up in the air at the same moment. We threw our heads back.
Hannah and Jinny, meanwhile, continued to dance unconcernedly in a standing position, continuing their movements in a mirrored fashion so that each of their dances could be recorded from all angles.
Su-a and I turned our bodies and supported ourselves on the floor with our hands and knees. With our right leg, we took the momentum and stretched it as we had the left leg before, before rolling to the side and standing up again behind Hannah.
Behind the girls, we finally took up our positions again and synchronised with their movements until we got to the bridge.
Hold that cup like alcohol, hold that cup like alcohol
Hold that cup like alcohol, don't you drop that alcohol
Never drop that alcohol, never drop that alcohol
I know you thinkin' about alcohol, I know I'm thinkin' bout that alcohol
We each made different movements to match the music and rhythm as the last blaring rap beats of Beyoncé faded from the first verse. Our straight formation broke up and formed back into a diamond shape. I breathed heavily behind the girls, who were together at the front and momentarily the main focus of the watching producers.
As Su-a got to her knees, Hannah and Jinny moved aside I stepped into focus. My dance in the middle was different from the others to my sides, who only performed alternating head and hand movements.
My whole body vibrated under the rhythm of the music and almost developed a life of its own that I would not have thought possible at the beginning of my training. Instead of performing long drawn-out gymnastics aimed at elegance and perfection on my own, I danced in a group to fast and jerky powerful rap, hip-hop and K-pop music.
