This year, six students have introduced K-culture into Camas High School (CHS) through the new K-Pop Dance Club (KDC). Club president Abby Huang, vice president Sophia and Kaylii Woods, team leader Reidun Voss, secretary Meera Pall, and treasurer Florence Liang were the brains behind this formation.
KDC founders took inspiration from various K-pop dance clubs in campuses outside of Washington state. Another motivating factor was the skyrocketing popularity in K-pop media, such as the movie “K-Pop Demon Hunters.”
Officers encourage students with any type of interest in K-pop to join.
“There’s not a lot of places around here that offer K-pop style dancing,” Voss said. “If you were to take it outside of school, I think it’s a fun way to perform.”
The KDC meets on Thursdays during Student Support Time (SST) in the mat room. Before joining through the AllTimely app, however, the KDC requests that members sign-up through Google Classroom (GC).
“We’re not going to condone people joining or being in the meetings if they’re just going to goof around,” Woods said. “There are people who want to be in the club and they want to enjoy those meetings, so we put it to club members only on the AllTimely.”
During meetings, the velcro wall in the mat room is taken down to reveal hidden mirrors, enabling members to practice the mirrored versions of the original choreography. Dance moves are taught slowly and leaders provide plenty of clarification when a member asks a question. With the short amount of time available during SST, each session only includes the dance chorus in each piece.
“[Meetings] are just based on the chorus, which is at most 20 seconds long,” Liang said. “We just focus on [those] 20 seconds throughout the 30-minute period.”
Members can request dances through a choreography request form in the KDC GC. The club leaders decide on a dance based on each piece’s popularity and difficulty, through practice outside of school hours during officer meetings.
KDC is a club that does not require a lot of commitment, in relation to other clubs. However, depending on the level of members’ commitment, club leaders are considering plans for public performances later in the school year.
“If [there are] people who seem really committed to the club we’ll have an interest form for [a real performance] at some point,” Woods said. “Those people will probably be required to practice with us after school.”
KDC aims to provide a welcoming and comfortable environment for students to bond through K-pop. The club is a place for people to freely express themselves through dance, immerse themselves in aspects of Korean culture, and for any student to relieve stress between classes.
“[KDC] is a cultural kind of dance, and if [students] want to pursue that at a public school campus, they should be able to,” KDC advisor Les Albert said.
“You shouldn’t be afraid to come because you can’t dance or because you are not very familiar with K-pop,” Pall said. “You don’t need to know a lot to be in the club. This should just be like a really free place.”
