#dance boot camp

[rkcheri]

i know my bitches love me

day 3 of dance boot camp | choreography exhibition | song » choreo

strip clubs and dollar bills, i still got my money.

those were the words that she was waiting for. she had a minute or so to get herself ready, impromptu waves of her body as well as the soft shuffling of her feet against the ground fueled the insisting instrumental that began the song. the progressing zooming tones that were supposed to be the trademarks fo r the supposed 'trap' genre of music had her nerves tingling, jeni suk's voice didn't make it any better. dressed to the zero in attire, she wasn't exactly the flashest of dancers in the room, nor did she really plan to be.

donning only a loose black tank that exposed most of her sides, as well as the black bra and bandeau she wore underneath, and were held by two somewhat thick straps for support paired with a loose as fuck sweatpants, she definitely couldn't be one to be called out for flash at the moment. but that was okay, she didn't want to be remembered as the girl who dressed up to makeup for her ill in performance. she was here to dance, not dress up -- a reminder she had to keep telling herself that morning as she looked around the room at the well-dressed performers who went about. if anything, jihyun wanted to be marked up for her dance skills, not how well she dressed or dressed to illusionize that she could dance better (ie. like hairography) -- it was all about the choreo today.

her minute was almost up, simple curving of the body wasn't going to do her any good -- it was time to show the crowd before her just what she had learned the past three days. the millions of ongoing thoughts that were zooming by in her head had a queasy feeling stuck in a form of butterflies in her stomach, eyes taking in the sight of the trainers whom were scattered around the area as well as her peers who looked on with both anticipation and disinterest, it was like a make-shift debut, only not really. everyone was waiting on what future 'rivals' would be able to bring to the table. funny thing was, jihyun didn't see any of them as enemies.

she didn't sing that type of tune. 

one, two, three, four. she counted the beats in her head before the song dropped and began the heavy bass thumping that led into the beginning of her dance. the voices in her head suddenly stopped, all thoughts moving south of consciousness as the lingering thought in her head came and went as well. if you use too much energy, your dancing looks forced. the words came back to haunt her from this morning. jihyun appreciated the criticism, more than anything because she knew more than anyone -- more than the trainers whom had told her the day earlier that she did have skill just needed to work on a few things, more than her mother whom had pushed her in the beginning to pursue such talents, more than those teachers she had sadly overlooked -- that she needed to work harder; moreso to catch up to those who were so exceptionally gifted, and it was fine.

at this moment as her body moved in synchronization to the longing tones of the song, she was paying her condolences and homages to those she had so carelessly ignored as a rebellious teen, silently scolding her own self through the dance for not listening to them earlier -- if she had, she probably wouldn't be so rusty on her toes. right now, she was bleeding out each and every note she had taken in by those who had unknowingly given her a second chance. the fluidity of the song smoothed into her bones, turning the layers of tissue and cartilage into jelly before her audience's eyes. it probably wasn't perfect, and jihyun didn't want it to be -- perfection was never something easily granted --  though the attempt to be was there. the dance wasn't meant to be sexual, she tried her hardest to find moves that would appropriately detail the song without it becoming provocative, knowing that others of her line would manipulate their craft into something that would dominate and praise the woman's body -- she was going for another approach. not to praise but to elongate the form, curving and moving in a way that didn't call for eroticism. no, she was going to leave a different impression. within a minute, that was all she needed to leave the mark that she wasn't the best dancer out there, but her showcase of skill would forecast that one day, she could be.

i don't want to give you the wrong impression. 

[haseulrk]

kim taeyeon @dukongtae 8:13 pm

Went with something really simple for Day Three, the instructors said they wished that I had taken more chances, but it was better than day 1 + 2.

[rksunyoung]

━ ♔ it's all in how you move it,

Choreography & Song; Jazmine Sullivan - "Don't Make Me Wait"

This was it.

Sunyoung was lightly bouncing on her toes, bracelets and necklaces jingling as she doing everything that she could to get rid of this nervous energy that was building up inside of her. The bass from the current rookies’ performance was still bouncing from the walls, but she (along with the other people standing in the backstage hallway, anxiously waiting for their time to step on the stage) could tell by the way that the tempo of the song was slowing down that their time was slowly coming an end, and that she was up next. The brunette could only hope that her stage fright wouldn’t get the best of her – she had been eating, breathing, and living dance for the past two days, and she had heard the chorus of Jazmine Sullivan’s song so much that she could probably recite it in her sleep. Thanks to a group of boys who were willing to give critique about her dance and help her put some finishing touches and hour or two before, Sunyoung was more than ready for this – she just hoped that all of that work she put in didn’t evaporate once she took a look at the crowd.

As soon as the bass stopped booming and cheers erupted from the room, Sunyoung started doing stretches to keep her mind off of what was about to come, and just to make sure that nerves couldn’t stiffen her body once she was out there. She couldn’t hear much about the critique that was being given to the other person out there as it was muffled by the walls, and frankly she was glad about that. Sunyoung could only hope that the others wouldn’t be too harsh on her, for her sake and theirs (because lord knows that she had a temper). When more claps signified that their turn was over, and the staff next to the door shouted out “Park Sunyoung, you’re next!”  the singer took one last inhale and exhale before running off onto the stage, a smile plastered on her lips.

(Once she made her way on the stage, she was so so so thankful that the bright lighting onstage made it too hard to point out faces in the audience.) “Uh… hi, I’m Park Sunyoung, twenty years old and I hope to become a world-class singer. The song I’m dancing to today is Jazmine Sullivan’s “Don’t Make Me Wait”.” That was all she said before she assumed her beginning position.

As soon as the beat kicked in her body started to move, a little stiff at first – but by the time she really got into the choreography the grin was natural, her moves showing that she was having fun while retaining the information that she learned within these past three days. The dance just screamed Sunyoung, and she swore she heard a couple of laughs as she finger-pointed along with the beat, an exaggerated happy expression on her face. The feeling that she got on stage was exhilarating, and she knew that she was in the zone. It didn’t take long for the song to end, and once she hit her ending pose along with a wink, cheers erupted from the crowd and she couldn’t help but bow.

If she was going to be honest, Sunyoung didn’t really hear what her peers said about her performance. She did actually hear them, but it went in one ear and out the other as she came down from her high of her performance. It wasn’t the best sure, but the best performer wasn’t always the most memorable. As long as Sunyoung gave the others something to remember (and the good kind of memorable, not the oh-my-god-i-got-secondhand-embarrassment-from-that-girl’s-performance kind), then she would have known that she had job.

When she exited the stage a loud “THANK FUCKING GOD,” came out from her mouth, to which she was shushed by staff member at the door but she didn’t care. The three days of dance hell were officially over, and Sunyoung came out of it stronger than what she was before.

(Now it was time to party like it was 1999.)

[yoonark]

♕ It's now or never; solo

Performance: 1 — 2 Songs: Pitbull - Go Girl & Michael Jackson - Jam Outfit: 1

She had prepared for it, she had prepared for it intensely, she had spent two days in that damn practice room. True, only when she was not running in the snow and wishing someone would take even a branch and just stab her with it to finish with her misery, but she had tried to come up with a choreography that would be good enough — not perfect, but good enough to impress the ones who would attend the final show. She wasn't exactly as nervous as she was a few years ago when she had auditioned for an entertainment company, but neither as relaxed as she usually was when she was practicing with her friends back in Seoul or performing on the streets of various districts.

She kept walking around in the backstage, back and forth for a few steps across the hall. People were passing by, coming and going, only she was there, nervously staring at her feet with each step and playing with her fingers. She was feeling a bit cold due to her exposed abdomen, but she knew that when she would start dancing, she would warm up. When she came to the boot camp, she was excited to participate to the final show, but now she just couldn't help but hope to get over with it, she was just so tensed that — although her abdomen was uncovered and it made her feel cold — her face was starting to slowly heat up to the point where she needed to wave in front of it.

She wanted to withdraw, her mind was telling her to just do it, but she didn't want to listen to it, and even if she did, it would have been too late. When the word “next” had been shouted out, she knew it was her turn to go on that stage and showcase what she had learnt throughout the camping days. In an attempt to bring her moral up by a bit, she told herself that if she wanted to quit and not give her best, she could have easily stood home, but as she was there and survived the “army regime”, she was going to go on that stage and rock it like she would one of her street performances.

She walked towards the stage, the lights turned completely turned off, making the room the campers were performing in pitch black. Her only luck was that the stage had to be clear and without anything in the way, otherwise, she would have tripped. She took her position and just waited, rewinding every piece of her choreography in her mind, from beginning to end. She knew that she had made her work a bit easier by talking to the staff and agreeing that with five seconds before her music would start, the lights on the stage would flash once brightly and when they did, she counted to five into her mind.

She had actually chosen two songs and when the first began — with the lights already turned on on and around the stage — she started taking a few steps ahead and brought an arm up, snapping her fingers to the beat. The seemingly calm moment of the choreography did not last long, she soon began to really dance, swinging from a side to the other. At a point she had even crouched quickly to the floor and pulled herself back up — she had a pause in her dance, she did not yet start to give her best. While standing, she slowly turned her head from the left side towards the audience, eyeing it for a few short moments before she began to yet again move her body to the melody. She had tried to balance her first choreography on both arm and leg movement — she had this flaw when making a dance that she would focus more on the arms rather than her legs, but she tried to overcome it for the performance.

When the first song had ended and the second one began, the lights started to flash slightly quicker, but also her flaw was shown in the dance — she had focused more on making arm choreography rather than moving her legs as well, but she tried to make them move on the beat as much as she could, just so the movements would not seem out of place. After the short, maybe flawed, moment, she began to balance her steps with her upper limbs once again and after what seemed just a few more seconds, she span once and finally stroke the last pose, finishing her performance. Her chest felt heavy, she had sweatdrops formed on her forehead and her breathing was simply all over the place, panting as she tried to regain her breath, but she was glad it was all over and she had made no mistake nor forgot a move.

[rkcheri]

don't love, worship

she couldn't understand why they were still continuing this pain-filling dance training, and as much as she did appreciate the tips and improvement she gained from this, she could literally feel her mind losing the grasp of the choreography she had made up the day before. cursing herself for being so easily riled, jihyun attempted to calm herself, breathing in through the nose and out the mouth in slow, deep breathes as she watched the people in front of her, one by one, execute a routine that the dance instructors at the way front had showed them fifteen minutes earlier. it wasn't anything too hard, thank god. and jihyun was sure that the routine one of the trainers yesterday had come up on the spot was much harder than the one they were showing now, maybe they were being lenient -- easy because of the tense environment that was the nerves that were quickly filling the room. it was suffocating. gulping down whatever nerves she swore she wouldn't have, jihyun stepped up to the plate, her line had been called to display the routine to the trainers.

had she really been in lala land for that long? she could have sworn that the first row was still going on but here she was -- room four, about to show what skills she had. rolling her head to relax the muscle, losing the nerves that peek-a-booed their way into her veins, jihyun smirked -- eyes taking in her appearance in the middle of the mirror, she was glad she chose the spot she was, dead-center in the line. jihyun was never one to be over-zelous with attention but when she knew she could have it, there was nothing stopping her from grabbing it with remarkably growing eagerness. the routine was simple enough, no more than two counts each step, even threw in a much more dumbed-down version of a dougie. now, jihyun wasn't the best nor could she be called the worst dancer out there but what she didn't have, she made up for with confidence, flaunting and cleanliness in moves. straight arms and swift movements, that was what a dancer needed as well as passion.

and confidence, cleanliness and passion she had, so much that when it came down to the last count -- each swipe of her arms was clean enough that she was sure if air had been a fragment of cloth, it would have been cut straight. her blonde hair whipping in the air so much that she was sure she had willow smith crying tears of joy. hearing ciara's voice ring out, it fueled her, helped her move and ease herself into the beat. last count came and went, and she was sure as her head moved to bend in the way it was needed to, it could have snapped by how much strength she had put into it. as the nod of the heads and scatter of applause lifted into the air, jihyun straightened herself up, pushing her blonde tendrils away from her face as she moved to walk to the back of the line, hidden from view as well as the sight of the next line of people. 

[rkcheri]

dance like there's no tomorrow

it was time, d-day. the day the choreography she had come up with yesterday with daehyun would be judged and critiqued. jihyun didn't know if she was anxious to know what they'd think of the moves or she was scared as fuck because what if something bad happened? what if she forgot the steps, the counts? jihyun had never been the greatest dancer, she was born to dance -- she picked up on moves easily and could just as nicely produce them but then again, there were the what if possibilities. each what if imaginable was making it's way into her head and it was terrifying. lee jihyun scared? wow, that was an emotion she didn't think she'd be feeling here at boot camp. exhausted, self-pity, pain and pessimism, yes, but fear? no -- that didn't quite register in her body quite well.

what was worst was that she was going to get peer critique, that she wasn't mentally ready for -- what if they thought her routine stunk? that would be a load of shits of hell. jihyun was never too good when it came to rejected, rejection wasn't something that came often to her -- she had her looks and apparently it was more often than not for someone not to say 'no' to someone who was pretty. and as superficial as that sounded, it was true -- at least for jihyun, so now; knowing that this camp was as tough as a turtle's shell, she wasn't so sure she was prepared for those criticisms despite the fact that she knew she would need them (and one day, would be eternally grateful for them). taking in a deep breath, she looked up in time to spy the person she was paired with -- the male whom she would give tips to and whom would do the same in return. wait, did he look -- "don't i know you?" her brows twinged together in confusion, somewhat trying to figure out where she had seen his familiar face.

[haseulrk]

Day 2: Two Left Feet

If Taeyeon thought that Day one of Boot Camp was hard, Day Two was maybe even worse.  She was still tired and stiff and that just added onto her already being insecure about her dancing, and it showed.  The instructor, pointed out, rather loudly, that she seemed to have gotten even worse from the day before.  She felt like crying, but kept her composure, just barely, digging the nails of her fingers into the palms of her hands.  

When they were assigned a piece of music later in the day, she was, much to her dismay, given what she had deemed her own personal kryptonite, a sexy song. Not that she was the Superman of dancing, far from it, but it was in her geeky nature to associate things this way. Taeyeon, who was able to fake confidence, was however, unable to fake sexiness.  She just didn't find herself sexy in any way, shape, or form.  And she was to try and make a choreography to this?

Despite her best efforts, she was told she was more "awkward" than sexy, that she should maybe just stick to singing, that she should be glad that other people would make choreo for her if she did make it. She just gave them a "Thank you" and a bow, pushing it all down inside, instead of letting it out like the other girls that were having a hard time. It was her way of dealing with things, not exactly the healthiest and it would often lead to bouts of depression after a while, but it was her way of dealing with it. 

[rksunyoung]

━ ♔ it's a cruel world to face on your own,

Dance boot camp – more like dance boot hell.

Sunyoung wasn’t a dancer, and although she wasn’t the best dancer, she certainly didn’t have two left feet. The fact that she was a quick learner was definitely helping her around this time. She had to admit, it was quite an ego boost to see her not struggling as much as the others who were stiff or who had two left feet. But at the same time, seeing the others who were exceeding with ease, not just dancing to the music but seriously feeling the music to the point where they were one – she was jealous. Completely jealous and it made her want to work even harder to become just like one of them. Probably not within these next two days, but hopefully sometime during her lifetime, maybe.

Sunyoung almost let out a whoop in the dance studio once the choreographer announced that they were receiving a two-hour break before the next lesson. Sweat dampened her hair and was rolling down the sides of her face and down her jawline – and if this was intense, she could only imagine how constant training when you were signed under an entertainment agency would be like. As many of the hopefuls started to exit the dance room, Sunyoung slowly felt her body start to sink to the floor, all the way until she was laying on the cold, hard ground, with a smile adorning her face thanks to the change in temperature. She was sure that she wasn’t going to be leaving here anytime soon. Turning to her left, the brunette saw that someone else that was still in her vicinity, obviously almost just exhausted as she was, to which she let out a light laugh. “Do you think…” Sunyoung started off raspy in their direction, the tiredness showing in her voice, “Do you think we’ll even live to make it out this place?”