Japanese of all ages are flocking to dance schools with specific requests to practice to K-pop tunes.

“K-pop idols boast their own cool and cute styles that cannot be found among their Japanese counterparts,” said Ririna Takagi, 9, who attends the Higashi-Nakano branch of the K-pop Otoya Dance School in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward. “Learning their skills is fascinating.”

The school is one of many that have popped up around Japan and emphasize dance moves and music from South Korea.

On one evening in mid-November, the Otoya Dance School branch was filled with 15 children of elementary and junior high school age, including Ririna.

They were practicing to a tune by the four-member female group Blackpink from South Korea.

The teacher gave instructions, such as “look up but keep your faces down.” The students waved and wriggled their hands and waists while adjusting their eye directions.

Tsubaki Arakawa, 9, said she started attending the school four years ago on the recommendation of her mother, a K-pop fan.

“I love Kep1er and Le Sserafim as well as Blackpink,” Tsubaki said.

Livescape Inc., the institution’s Tokyo-based operator, began accepting young students in 2018. It now provides 19 classes at five schools, including one targeting people looking to debut in South Korea.

Children as young as 4 can join its programs. Some parents take the classes with their kids.

Students generally receive lessons on fundamental techniques at typical dance academies. Livescape designs classes specially aimed at having students perform to a certain tune to the very end.

“We are responding to the needs of consumers who want to dance to the songs of specific groups,” said Akira Hagiwara, 59, representative director of Livescape.

Yellow Sparrow in Fukuoka Prefecture started operations in 2015 to exclusively offer K-pop dance lessons. It now has 90 schools from Hokkaido to Okinawa Prefecture.

“The school number increased by the dozens over the past few years,” said a Yellow Sparrow representative. “Our quotas are quickly reached.”

SYNERGY EFFECTS

Behind the boom of K-pop dance schools are the synergy effects between K-pop and popularity of dance.

South Korean boy group BTS raked in 18.48 billion yen ($135.6 million) in sales in Japan in 2021, the No. 1 spot by a musical artist, according to Oricon Inc. The group also placed first in the album category.

Another South Korean group, Seventeen, ranked fifth and ninth with two albums in the category.

Meanwhile, a nationwide survey conducted by education service provider Benesse Corp. on 1,236 elementary school children and their guardians in 2021 showed that dancing was the second most popular after-school activity among the pupils.

“Dance was included in compulsory subjects for health and physical education at junior high schools in 2012, which broadened children’s interest in it,” said Kazuya Hisaoka, 43, representative director of the Japan Dance Authorize Council in Osaka Prefecture. “Dance is popular in school club activities, too.”

In addition, social media allows young people to share and check their dance videos online, which has promoted the performance art as a means of self-expression, Hisaoka said.

CHALLENGING, REWARDING

Middle-aged consumers have raised the profile of South Korean art, such as TV dramas, in Japan. They are now pushing K-pop dancing.

On a recent weekday, six women in their 50s and 60s were dancing to BTS’s “Not Today” with their teacher, Hideya, 23, at the D Presents dance school in the Koenji district of Tokyo’s Suginami Ward.

The song was split into sections so that each student’s moves could be slowly reproduced and repeated for an improved performance.

The class that uses K-pop is the most popular at the school.

The operator opened two schools earlier this year, giving it four branches in Tokyo and neighboring Saitama Prefecture.

Yuko Yamanaka, a student from Suginami Ward, said she is a fan of BTS and another boy band, Exo.

“I thought dancing like them would be great,” she said.

Ayako Babauchi, 51, who lives in Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward, said she had long dreamt of learning to dance and decided to take the challenge after her 50th birthday.

She initially did not know much about K-pop, but she grew enormously fond of BTS while mimicking its performances.

“Watching their moves is completely different from retracing their steps,” Babauchi said. “Practices made me aware of how cool they are and how difficult it is to sing and dance like them.”

Babauchi trained her muscles so that she could move as elegantly as BTS. She lost 6 kilograms in the process, and now takes dance lessons three times a week.

Reina, 21-year-old professional dancer and choreographer from Tokyo, was recruited by a South Korean talent agency at age 19 and made a name for herself by arranging dances for Stray Kids and other K-pop groups.

“Those dance tunes are composed in a way that makes listeners want to imitate the performers, but they are too difficult to copy perfectly,” Reina said. “For this very reason, people may be motivated to learn how to dance like them.”

Reina’s complicated dances can be performed only by well-trained professionals. Her routines include characteristic moves that leave a striking impression on fans.

“Practicing more improves one’s dance ability,” she said. “People may feel that re-creating the idols’ movements will bring them closer to them.”

(This article was written by Erina Ito and Natsuki Edogawa.)