By Jon Lam
The KPOP Cover Dance Festival 2013 and the JYP Audition ended with a bang last week on June 8th 2013. An overwhelming number of KPOP fans were at the scene to support the 20 talented teams that were selected to go through to the second round of the KPOP Cover Dance Festival in London, the prize being a free trip to Korea. The handpicked teams not only came from London and all over the UK but there were also other teams that travelled all the way from France for the second round.
Shortly after noon, the teams started coming through the doors of the Korean Cultural Centre in Strand to register their teams in and receive a short orientation on what will happen later in the day. In the waiting room downstairs, some KPOP Cover Dance teams can be seen going over a few moves to perfect their dance routines whilst others were sat down, taking deep breaths before they headed upstairs to perform in front of the Producer of the KPOP Cover Dance Festival (PD Moon Chang Ho) and the Head of the JYP casting team.
The first contestant to perform was Amber Louise Wallis who travelled from out of London to come to the second round of the festival. Whilst waiting to perform, Amber could be seen practicing her powerful dance moves in front of all the other KPOP fans and supporters and when asked what her motive was for joining the KPOP Cover Dance Festival, she replied that ‘it’s always been something I’ve wanted to do in the future’. Other attendees also expressed that KPOP Cover Dancing was something that they intended to follow on with and do in the future.
At 5pm, the KPOP Cover Dance Festival 2013 started and each team went on stage to strut to their dance moves. In particular, the eighth team to perform, Team Loko, received great support as a large crowd of Team Loko students and friends wearing Loko badges and T-shirts came in to watch and support the team by clapping and cheering. After performing their synchronised and powerful dance to ‘Rock your Body’ by Vixx, it was evident that they ‘rocked the judges’ bodies’ too since the 6 member team bagged a free trip to Korea for the final round of the KPOP Cover Dance Festival 2013.
The team were in tears as their names were announced and they were lost for words for a moment but Team leader Tammy Jane Mejia said that she ‘couldn’t believe that a simple idea could turn into something this big’. The youngest member of the Loko Team, Amy Detnon said that this opportunity was ‘like a dream come true’ and when asked what she wanted to do most in Korea, she exclaimed that she ‘wanted to take lots of photos of the Korean skyline.’ Other members of the team also added that they wanted to do other things such as go to Lotte World, eat ‘Odeng’ and see the traditional side of Korea.
We truly congratulate Team Loko for making it through to the final round of the KPOP Cover Dance Festival in South Korea this September/October and hope that they will be able to represent all the KPOP cover dance fans of the UK in Korea! Photos and videos of the day can be found on the official website www.coverdance.org and KPOP cover dancers from anywhere in the world can still upload their dance videos online for a chance to win a free trip to Korea.
Check out their winning performance below!
