The Korean British Cultural Exchange will be hosting two days of online K-POP dance and vocal workshops this month.
These workshops will be focused on improving the confidence of the attendees whilst helping develop their skills.
We spoke with Sunny Um, PR Manager and Sooyoung Park, instructor/dancer at KBCE.
Um said: “This workshop can be a meaningful event for those who are getting sad or gloomy during this massive lockdown.
“It is also is an opportunity for people to learn dance and sing to KPOP.”
KBCE was established in 2016 to create an opportunity for Korean culture to be shown to those living in the UK and is run by volunteers.
KBCE have run K-POP and Korean cultural festivals before, but the workshops are for people to further immerse themselves in the culture.
Um said that the online workshops were originally meant to be paid for, but they decided to make it free because ‘these workshops could be a way to connect people during the pandemic.’
The workshop will include learning the dances of groups such as BLACKPINK and BTS, the latter recently reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Park said that a large part of why K-POP is so large internationally is because fans are always able to ‘connect with the artist’.
Especially during a pandemic like this, connection via Twitter or YouTube is especially important.
Alongside this, Park says that ‘the visual art in music videos and the personality of members in groups are all reasons as to why K-POP has grown so wide-spread.’
Foreigners within K-POP has always been unheard of, and further shows its international impact.
Groups such as recently debuted girl group Black Swan consist of a Brazilian and Senegalese member showcase this impact.
The idea of the workshops came from helping people in the pandemic and keeping people healthy and happier when the world is going through such an unprecedented event.
The goal for these workshops is ‘to ultimately make people happier’, says Um.
Furthermore, after the workshops, a video compilation will be put together of 10 seconds of each participant dancing or singing into a music video.
It will be a sort of ‘promotional video’, and constantly relays the message of staying uplifted and supporting one another through the pandemic.
More information about the workshops are available through the KBCE page: https://www.kbce.org.uk/kkf2020.
Details can also be found on the official Instagram account: @ukkpopcamp.
Featured image credit: Wikimedia.
