Kirjahaku

This book is about K-pop dance and the evolution and presence of its dance fandom on social media. Based on five years of ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, choreography, and participation-observation with 40 amateur and professional K-pop dancers in New York, California, and Seoul, the book traces the evolution of K-pop dance from the 1980s to the 2020s and explains its distinctive feature called ‘gestural point choreography’ – front-driven, two-dimensional, decorative and charming movements of the upper body and face – as an example of what the author theorizes as ‘social media dance.’ It also explores K-pop cover dance as a form of intercultural performance, suggesting that, by imitating and idolizing K-pop dance, fans are eventually ‘fandoming’ themselves and their bodies.Presenting an ethnographic study of K-pop dance and its fandom, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Media Studies, Korean Studies, Performance Studies, and Dance.

This book is about K-pop dance and the evolution and presence of its dance fandom on social media. Based on five years of ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, choreography, and participation-observation with 40 amateur and professional K-pop dancers in New York, California, and Seoul, the book traces the evolution of K-pop dance from the 1980s to the 2020s and explains its distinctive feature called ‘gestural point choreography’ – front-driven, two-dimensional, decorative and charming movements of the upper body and face – as an example of what the author theorizes as ‘social media dance.’ It also explores K-pop cover dance as a form of intercultural performance, suggesting that, by imitating and idolizing K-pop dance, fans are eventually ‘fandoming’ themselves and their bodies.Presenting an ethnographic study of K-pop dance and its fandom, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Media Studies, Korean Studies, Performance Studies, and Dance.

K-pop Dance Education is the first comprehensive guide to teaching, studying, and researching K-pop dance in global contexts. Through ethnographic fieldwork with fifty K-pop dance professionals, idols, agency CEOs, and choreographers across the US and Korea, this book offers an inside view of K-pop dance pedagogy. Integrating dance and performance studies, media studies, and cultural studies, it establishes a foundational K-pop dance studies framework and introduces research methods theorizing its cultural, aesthetic, and industrial specificities. Addressing issues of authenticity, training, and postcolonialism, it shows how Korea’s rigorous idol-training model becomes a creative fan practice in the US and how it overshadows local teachers’ labor under Western choreographers. Positioned to meet growing academic and public demand, this book provides adaptable teaching strategies for universities, arts high schools, community studios, and children’s and continuing education programs and serves as an essential resource for Korean pop culture, global performing arts, tourism, and study abroad courses.

K-pop Dance Education is the first comprehensive guide to teaching, studying, and researching K-pop dance in global contexts. Through ethnographic fieldwork with fifty K-pop dance professionals, idols, agency CEOs, and choreographers across the US and Korea, this book offers an inside view of K-pop dance pedagogy. Integrating dance and performance studies, media studies, and cultural studies, it establishes a foundational K-pop dance studies framework and introduces research methods theorizing its cultural, aesthetic, and industrial specificities. Addressing issues of authenticity, training, and postcolonialism, it shows how Korea’s rigorous idol-training model becomes a creative fan practice in the US and how it overshadows local teachers’ labor under Western choreographers. Positioned to meet growing academic and public demand, this book provides adaptable teaching strategies for universities, arts high schools, community studios, and children’s and continuing education programs and serves as an essential resource for Korean pop culture, global performing arts, tourism, and study abroad courses.