Favorite - Kpop Dance Practices

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

We can all agree choreographies are a vital part of kpop music. They can either increase the enjoyement of a song tenfold or leave you like something is strangely missing.

While the glamorous part of kpop: the lights, the flashy clothes, and at times nauseating camera work of music videos and promotion performances make it easy to get lost in the midst of beautiful close-ups and eargasming vocals, leaving you bedazzled, cheering for and wanting more of your favorite girls and guys, it's great fun to take a step back and take a look at the relaxed -and in OP's humble opinion- more fun version of what makes a song and dancing combo great.

Rid of the weight of having to look, move and sound perfect (and sometimes robotic) in front of a live audience or while getting that perfect shot for the MV, dance practices offer a perfect leeway to showcase their individual abilities as well as their teamwork in a more relaxed manner.

Here is OP's (entirely biased) list of the best kpop dances.

Warning: This post is long and contains a LOT of videos.
Lower your volume.


1. SNSD

Regarded by some as SNSD's best song to date, the 2009 eurodance track was hailed aninstant hit. Tell Me Your Wish, or Genie as it's known internationally, arguably marked Soshi's highest peak.

As a SONE, it's always a delight seeing them all full of energy and enjoying themselves while doing what they do best; it's hard not to dance along.

Highlights:

• Sunny hopping around.
• Jessica dancing...and still getting it wrong.
• Hyolo as always being a couple steps away.

2. Kara

The group's first comeback after controversy that left them two members short as well as Youngji's heavily scrutinized debut; many were doubtful they would be able to come back in full force.

This delightfully energetic song was able to prove them wrong. Everything about this screams KARA is was back.

Higlights:

• Seungyeounf. That one fab male dancer with the green top.

3. T-ara

Fun and deciptively easy, this crafy dance main focus is the ever popular shuffling dance move and it's simple -for kpop standards-formations; the choreography will nonetheless have you wanting to meet your creator towards the end.

Highlights:

• Soyeon's smooth as fuck backward shuffling.

4. Nine Muses

Elegant and coy is the best way to describe both the song and dance while at the same time being powerful enough to keep it from being the typical overly girly-girl choreo.

Higlights:

• Sera gliding from one side to the other in 3.5 seconds

5. Wonder Girls

While the original concept of a flashmob is fun; the music video made it hard to fully appreciate the dance as a whole and how difficult it acually is.

A fun routine that will leave you with aching legs.

Highlights:

• Dog.

Orange Caramel - Catallena

Fun and quirky like only OC can be.
Highlights: Outakes...why are you like this? Never change. Plz come back.

Dreamcatcher - Catch Me

Up and coming rookie power group. It's always refreshing to see a girl group with a powerful choreography, but it's rare to see one that is actually succesful.

Highlights: Everything. Try to keep up.





1. EXO

The song that rocketed EXO to the top where they've been staying for the past four or so years came with a dance to match. The buzz both the song and dance was insane.

Although generally not a fan of a moving camera for dance practices, it's a part of the choreo itself this time around to make it look more fluid and coherent. The choreo was complex enough to higlight all of the members, including the awkward dancers while doing a duperb job of having the main dancers subtly carry it when needed.

Highlights:

• Kai being a cutie pie.

2. SHINee

It's impossible to have a "best of" list of any kind without mentioning Shinee. When it comes to dancing, they have a way of making all of their hard as fuck choreos look so easy. It's fun trying to imitate them.

It was so hard picking one particular dance for SHINee; I love all of their dance practices; however, it was this song that cemented SHINee as my ultimate favorite boy group so here it is.

Highlights:

• Taemin's trippy shirt.

3. BTS

Although all of BTS's choreographies are deliciously complicated and exhausting enough to have any take this spot, I choose Danger in particular as an example of how a dance is able to increase value of a song, so to speak.

Danger is not a bad song, but it feels as if something is missing by while played by itself. The dance manages to give it that extra pump that it needs to be 'complete'.



4. Seventeen

The rookie (?) group that came to stay and so freaking multitalented it makes me green with envy and without a weak link in the group when it comes to dancng. Why Very Nice out of the gazillion dance practice videos they have? It's, in my opinion, their best song and their best dance yet.

Highlights:

• It's hard to pick...How to steal Hoshi's talent?

5. GD & Taeyang

Although not a favorite song of mine by a long shot; I can't help but inmensely enjoy this dance. Everything from GD's precise yet relaxed movements to Taeyang's energetic dancing and the assortement of back-up dancers all adding their own style...it's just a dance you can enjoy to watch or follow along. Not overly complicated either; you'll be sure to get the steps after only a few rounds.

Highlights:

• GD. It's easy to forget how good of a dancer the guy actually is.
• Fabulous cropped top guy is back (?) dancing like it's the last day on Earth. GD-oppar even noticed him.

Speed - Don't Tease Me

It says something about the choreo when the group has to switch to a gym instead of their usual practice room to perform their routine.

VIXX - Voodoo Doll

If there's one thing to love about VIXX, it's how they take one theme and incorporate it to everything, from MV, to outfits, to choreography. A highly conceptual idol group overall.





Female:


1. Luna

Everyone knows Luna is top vocalist, but her dancing is, more often than not, overlooked in favor of Krystal and Victoria. This was her opportunity to show not only her singing abilities but also her powerful dancing. SM needs to stop being a bitch and upload this in all it's HD glory ASAP.


2. Nicole

Sadly, Nicole was relegated to what seemed at times a back up dancer and vocalist during her time at Kara. Mama allowed her to go all out for once.


Special Mention: Pink Haired Girl feat. Hyoyeon

Not a dance practice, but Hyolo must be mentioned in a dancing list. Although this Sone thinks her dancing has definitely rusted over time, it's easy to see that Hyo still retains her love for dancing.

Also, pink haired girl is a beast.



Male:

1. XIA

The way he mixed his theatre experience with his singing makes not only the song, but the dancing emotional on itself, making a good song become great.


2. Taemin

While his style is not everyone's cup of tea, there's no denying the guy is passionate and talented. Not every idols can go from dancer of the group, to dancer featuring said group after all.

Remember Taemin and The Shineettes?


Special Mention: Taeyang

Another non practice video, and I can only imagine the nightmare it was to create and then learn this dance, so many props for that.

---

Sources:
CIKI, DSP Kara, 1theK, MirrorHD, WonderGirls, Pledis Official, HappyFace Ent
SMTown, SMTown, BangtanTV, Seventeen, BigBang, MBK Ent., RealVIXX
csh3335, Nicole, Dance Mirror
CJESJYJ, SMTown, BigBang

What are your favorite dance practice videos? Do you dance to kpop music?
Which dance practices do you wish were available?



I'm by no means a writer; please excuse any mistakes.

Hope this is the one, mods.

Comments

[boxcuttergirl.livejournal.com]

im on my phone but What U by speed is legendary omg they dance wearing heelie shoes the whole time

also Swagger Time by Map6 and I Like That by Glam

[chouta-angel.livejournal.com]

Yes. The 'What U' video is soooooo slick and smooth.





But also it scares me because they apparently practiced the older choreo while wearing those shoes too




Edited to put video behind a cut

[dorawa.livejournal.com]

I'm offended by the lack of INFINITE on this list

Their BTD dance practice was great

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

They were included in the list at first; I love everything about The Chaser, but the practice vid for it is meh at best, so I ended up replacing them with Speed at the end. :p

[haixiao.livejournal.com]

i swore up and down i hated good boy but for some reason i watched the dance practice and i ended up learning like half the choreo lmao

so many good dance practices i forgot abt, thanks op for this post

[daikokudanji.livejournal.com]

My favorite dance practice is DBSK's Maximum because it was leaked and it had an ot5 version of the song being played and shit went down, everyone lost their minds and cried (also homin and jyj stans went crazy and cursed everyone and everything, reported all the videos 2011 WAS CRAZY)

[welljustguess.livejournal.com]

for real?! woah i should look for it

[lostintheechoes.livejournal.com]

someday i will learn ringa linga. its one of my power songs.

[keytfelt.livejournal.com]

Yes @ this post, I'm going to be camped here all weekend, I love dance practices. Nice job OP!
That SHINee dance practice is iconic, Taemin's shirt adds to the hypnosis of it. (Cue my bitterness that SM refuses to release dance practices for them anymore)
Seventeen dance practices are always so fun.
Come back Orange Caramel!

Some of my faves:

[showminomoney.livejournal.com]

it's those exact 2pm & Got7 dance practices that really got me into them. my all time faves!

[theharleyquinn.livejournal.com]

Love this post. The Lucifer dance practice is legendary. It's amazing to see how tightly they performed it back then and it makes me nostalgic because they dance it much more loosely now. My picks are going to be older ones, since dance practice vids now tend to be more performance based and I liked them back when they really felt raw like actual practice.

I like Flashback from After School because I think the layering of choreo is amazing. It shows you how good dancing can look with a large group if the choreographer isn't lazy and makes them do the same thing.



Also SHINee's Sherlock is probably my favorite from them. The Sherlock one is kind of quirky and has some mistakes, but it's fun to watch. They must have had problems with placement because of the checkpoints on the floor lol

[kaykaydelight.livejournal.com]

I was obsessed with that After School dance when it first came out. The choreo is really good and the girls are so in sync.

[pepsi-twist9.livejournal.com]

I like the Monster by Exo one better and Oh! by SNSD's dance practice is more interesting to me. The performance really doesn't do the choreo justice.
BTS has so many good ones. I really don't care for their music but their dances >>>>

[jinkiestabi.livejournal.com]

I have a lot, but I go back and watch these often:

2NE1 - I Am The Best
BIGBANG - Tonight & Somebody To Love
SNSD - The Boys & Mr. Taxi (ObSESSED with both)
SHINee - Replay ( I don't think we'll ever see them dance it that way again, lol. )

And this! I especially like the beginning part of the choreo.



And OP, you beat me to this, I had been working on a similar post, lol.

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

Lmao! Sorry, not sorry.

Been wanting to make this post for a while, but only had the time to put it together today.

SM needs to release IGAB's dance practice.

[mad-nux.livejournal.com]

Bad Man Crying by Rainbow that we never got to see them perform live because fuck dsp

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

I saw that the vid for Rookie was released after posting this...
Such is life.

[dropthecrates.livejournal.com]

hi we're basically the same person and i need a dance practice video for fast pace asap

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

Yay! This is such a good topic for omona discussion! Im on my phone rn but i'll be posting my faves later

[sra-interesante.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THESE!

imo recently many groups like seventeen or bts upgraded practices game .... costumes? switch/follow me/hide version? omg yes, please

my faves go for the classic dance practice style










but also i like fun dance practice like kard switch dance or 2pm go crazy

[mlmello.livejournal.com]

all the feelings with these girl groups and kpop hits.

[kaykaydelight.livejournal.com]

I don't watch much dance practice videos now n days. But I remember the dance practice videos I would rewatch often were 2NE1's IATB, Hyuna's Bubble Pop, Miss A's Goodbye Baby, After Schools Flashback, Spica's I'll Be There, and EXO's History.

I would love if Red Velvet released dance practice videos of their songs. Especially a complete one for Automatic. Love the choreo for that one.

[kaykaydelight.livejournal.com]

Also I didn't know my lazy queen Soyeon could actually dance once upon a time. The bullying scandal must have did a number on Her because she really dgaf now.

[rally-pchan.livejournal.com]

this is my favorite

[sayuridoll.livejournal.com]

nana's "HA!" and them being cute at the end does it for me

i always like the genie dance practice and i always end up watching jessica. she's really fluid in the genie dance and i liked it. also it's nice to see her try lmao

[a-cheshire-grin.livejournal.com]

Iconic! I love Nana! ^.^<3

[dafairyness.livejournal.com]

Jinwoon's hips don't lie.

[cedric-mcfly.livejournal.com]

I liiive for 2am's girl group dance practices/performances!

And i can never get over how into it Changmin always gets, so good!

[pikapika217.livejournal.com]

The EARLY sistar practices are faves for me - particularly shady girl and intro/push push - as is AOA's Get Out and Nine Muses Figaro, News & Ticket.

[sra-interesante.livejournal.com]

props to sistar! 90% of their dance practice are in high heels ... and members always wear the exact same shoes

i love when they pay attention to little details :)

[mmmalvina.livejournal.com]

A+ post, this is why i love kpop! shinee's lucifer blew my mind

[carmine-pink.livejournal.com]

Gotta show some love for my favorite gym jams: Teen Top's Crazy and Rocking

[sra-interesante.livejournal.com]

when members start randomly cheering and whooping themselves you can tell they are having fun 😀 niel specially seem so pumped up during crazy

[hyeonggon.livejournal.com]

2pm's 니가 밉다 is ICONIC

[cedric-mcfly.livejournal.com]

I've lost count of how many times i've watched this one!
Also lol forever at Junho and Khun's reactions to all this madness!

[cedric-mcfly.livejournal.com]

I love 2pm's dance practices when they go a bit wild, lol!
If someone asked me what's 2pm like, i'd show them the "Go Crazy" dance practice, that's it that's the group!

2am's girl group dance practices are next level, and of course Shinee's Lucifer one is iconic.

Shoutout to Orange Caramel's "Catallena", HAAA! :D

[typhlogirl.livejournal.com]

This video is literally the reason I got into GFriend, it is MAGICAL