Photo/Illutration Reina says she practiced at a community center near her home in Tokyo before gaining international fame as a choreographer and dancer. (Natsuki Edogawa)

One video changed her entire life.

Reina was asked to choreograph “Make a Wish,” a song by South Korean boy group NCT U, in 2020 when she was 19 years old.

The music video, which features group members putting their hands together in a prayer gesture, was viewed 200 million times.

The dance features contagious moves that require dancers to use their entire body to reflect the dynamism.

But viewers kept tweeting one question: Who is Reina?

Reina, stylized as ReiNa, was 5 years old when she first attended a dance class held at a community center near her home in Tokyo.

Fascinated by the performing art, she practiced six hours every day using glass windows at the community center as a mirror.

She started entering dance contests when she was a fifth-grader.

“I lost myself in music and just kept on dancing because I felt comfortable,” she recalled.

But she couldn’t win any competitions.

She continued practicing after school, determined to achieve her goal, despite the difficulty in finding time to hang out and have fun with her classmates.

Reina’s hard work soon paid off. When she was a junior high schooler, she placed second at a competition in the United States and was picked to appear alongside Justin Bieber when the Canadian singer performed live in Tokyo.

After continually posting videos of her dance practices and routines, she started receiving requests from a South Korean music agency to choreograph dances for its artists.

Reina has worked on about 30 K-pop songs over the past two years.

In Japan, she choreographed dances performed in “I’ll Be Your Bloom,” a TV drama series aired by Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc. and its affiliates.

“I have been able to entertain and please people around the world,” the dancer said. “I want to keep expanding the possibilities of dance.”

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