[Culture inside] Learn it yourself, and go crazy like an idol...K-Dance "Popularity"

[Anchor]
Pure dance, which felt difficult and distant like ballet or Korean dance, is gaining popularity these days.

There are quite a few people who learn dance themselves and like dancers from survival entertainment programs like idols.

Reporter Kim Seung-hwan will tell you what the reason for the popularity is.

[Reporter]
Sometimes it's flexible, sometimes it's powerful.

Extend your arms and legs to the piano melody.

Like a ballerina on stage, I apply strength to my toes and fingertips and try to create as elegant a movement as possible.

[Yoon Min-young / Ballet Academy student at Mapo Art Center, Seoul] I don't sweat a lot, but when I do ballet, my body sweats a little, and then I think it was attractive to focus while looking in the mirror.]

I also took ballet class for 70 minutes.

Maybe because I use a lot of muscles that I don't usually use, it's really hard to do even a little bit.

There are more than 20 ballet classes a month at cultural centers in Mapo-gu, Seoul.

The response is so great that the total number of students is more than 400.

[Heo Jung-min / Ballet Academy student at Mapo Art Center, Seoul: Mothers' bodies hurt a lot because their posture is very disorganized after giving birth to a child, but the pain has improved a lot. Mentally, coming to ballet is so fun and exciting, so I think it gives me vitality in my life.]

Ballet's popularity in large dance performances is overwhelming in addition to physical learning classes.

■Video source: Mnet's "Stage Fighter"

But with the airing of a survival program involving 64 male dancers, interest in Korean and modern dance as well as ballet is growing.

It's the first entertainment program to deal with pure dance, and the competition between participants with physical conditions that are comparable to idols has given a new attraction.

[Information Kyung / Korean Dance Coach: First class dancers should protect their current rank with their own choreography]

[Kim Hyo-joon / Stage fighter contestant: (First class) We have to keep this.]

[Choi Ho Jong / Stage fighter contestant: I'm not going down. Because I'm ready.]

Interest in dance has soared among the younger generation, with target viewership topping programs at the same time period from 15 to 39.

■National Dance Company's "2024 Choreographer Project" (National Theater from 31st to 3rd November)

In this atmosphere, the dance world is also continuing its efforts to steadily cultivate up-and-coming choreographers.

Dancers and members of the National Dance Company, who are already famous for their dance videos on YouTube, have been selected for the project and are currently unraveling Korean dances in their own way.

[Cho Jong-in / National Dance Company's guest choreographer: The dance that I want to make at this moment and the dancers want to dance the most at this moment. And it's a dance that I want the audience to like the most.]

In terms of sales in the first half of this year, dance accounts for only 2.7% of the musical, so the proportion of the performance industry is insignificant.

However, as pure dance becomes a hot topic, attention is being paid to whether a new wind will blow in the performance industry, where the phenomenon of concentration as a large musical or popular singer performance is prominent.

I'm YTN's Kim Seung Hwan.


Filmmaker: Jeong Tae-woo
Design: Lee Na-young
Video Source: Mnet 'Stage Fighter'