For section three; a dancers body

 

 

Sunye, Yunho, Jaebeom, Kahi, and Minzy were inside the dance studio, warming up while talking and laughing at some jokes, when Jiyong walked in.

“Hey guys.” Jiyong greeted his team.

Jaebeom was the first member that was approached by Jiyong, “What’s up?” Jiyong and Jaebeom did their handshake and gave each other brotherly hug for a while.

Jiyong moved to Yunho and did similar act like how he had done before with Jaebeom. Then he moved to the girls, “How are the three beautiful ladies doin’?” he asked while hugged each girl.

Jiyong walked to the front side of the studio and stood at the center, “So I hope the hype from our last event that happened 3 months ago haven’t left you yet, because we will start to practice for our next event soon.”

Minzy groaned at the thought of long and tiring intensive training. Kahi sighed, but it wasn’t because she felt lazy or burdened, it was more because she was still in disbelief of how creative and active their leader could be, even though they had been in the same dance team for almost 6 years. Sunye just smiled in understanding. Jaebeom and Yunho weren’t that care. They were always ready to dance whenever and wherever.

“So what’s the idea of the event?” Yunho asked.

“I want to show people that dance is for everyone.” Jiyong answered.

“Isn’t it a bit usual?” Minzy said in confusion. Jiyong usually had many crazy ideas in his mind, why this time he said something that sounded too ordinary?

“When I said for everyone, it means for all people that can breathe.” Jiyong stated. The team still had confused expression on their face.

Jiyong smiled then explained more about the idea. When he finished with the explanation, the team started to make reaction which signed that they understood their leader’s idea.

“Ah! I know some places and organizations where we can make our donation to.” Sunye said. Her mind started to make a list of names of places and organizations.

Jiyong nodded, “Good. Choose 3 to 5 of them. We will see how much we can get from the ticket selling.”

“I’ll try to find sponsors for our event.” Kahi spoke up.

Jiyong nodded then looked at Jaebeom, “And you …”

“Will handle the advertising part.” Jaebeom smiled in confident.

“I’ll help.” Minzy added. Jaebeom did high five with Minzy.

“Then,” Jiyong looked at Yunho, “You will help me to find the properties. We need to find it soon because we will practice with it.” Yunho nodded.

“Sit, sit.” Jiyong moved closer to the team and sat down on the floor. The team member followed, they sat on the floor in circle.

“Let’s start brainstorming for choreography ideas.” Jiyong started.

For a moment, they just sat in silence. But when one person started to utter an idea, another person would suggest another idea, then some of them would support one of the ideas, then another idea would appear again from different person.

Ideas kept coming from 6 minds, and in almost an hour, the idea kept growing till finally they got something that was agreed by everyone. Once the idea settled, they stood up and started to make the choreography that had been in their mind into realization.

**

They were Move Dance Crew, or to be short, people usually called them MDC. Jiyong, Yunho, Jaebeom, Minzy, Sunye, and Kahi were able to meet because of their friends. 6 of them, companied by their friends, went to one big dance class that was held by a famous dance team that was on tour and visited the country. At break time, 6 of them were being introduced to each other by their friends. The connection line was crazy. The idiom ‘what a small world’ might be true after all.

Near the end of the class, the dance coach separated the dancers into 2 groups, 1 group from his left side and other group from his right side. He let the group from his left performed the moves that they had been learnt for 1 hour first. In that group, there were Kahi, Yunho, and Minzy. When the music started, the dancers started to move, followed the music’s beat. After they finished, other group with the dance coach clapped in appreciation.

When the dancers from the right side group stood up to perform, Jiyong quietly walked away from the group and joined the left side group. After watched Kahi, Yunho, and Minzy, he wanted to watch Sunye and Jaebeom too. After the talk that they had with their friends, Jiyong didn’t quite sure why, but he got strong feeling that Yunho, Jaebeom, Minzy, Sunye, and Kahi were great dancers. He had watched 3 of them and his feeling was right so far. From his eyes, Kahi, Minzy, and Yunho stood out the most within their group.

The same music from before was played, the dancers from the right side group started to do the exact same moves like what the left side group had done. And once again, Jiyong was right. He liked the way Sunye and Jaebeom danced the choreography.

Jiyong smiled to himself. Finally, after long time searching, he found people that he could recruit to form a dance crew with him. It could turn to be a disaster to put five good dancers, with him, in one team, since each of them had different style, different feeling and different perspective in movement. But there was also possibility that the dance crew would be the next big thing in dance world, and he dared to take the risk.

At the first time, the five dancers didn’t really think Jiyong’s idea would work, but after lot of persistent persuasion from Jiyong, they finally agreed to join. Their months of struggle, conflicts, and hard time were finally paid off when they won their first dance competition as a team. From there, together as a team, they aimed for one goal, which is to be the best dance crew in the country.

For almost 4 years, they went from one competition to another, made lots of dance videos and uploaded them on YouTube. They succeeded to win many dance competitions and the team was getting more acknowledgements in dance world and from people from different countries. In addition of that, they were getting paid for doing something that they loved. They felt really blessed and thankful, especially to Jiyong who had brought them together.

They named themselves as Move Dance Crew because, first of all, for obvious reason, dancers danced, they moved when they listened to music. Second, because they wanted audience to move along with them when they danced on stage. Bobbed their head, snapped their fingers, tapped their feet on the floor, and any other of simple movements, MDC wanted the audience to enjoy their performance to the fullest. Last, with their performance, MDC wanted to move their audience’s heart. They wanted to make the audience felt happy when they danced cheerful choreography and felt sad when they danced a sad, dramatic choreography.

As their popularity grew, Jiyong kept thinking what else he could do with the crew’s dance talent. When he got an idea, he told it to the team and the team agreed with it without any second thought. And the idea became additional reason why they called themselves Move Dance Crew. They wanted to encourage people to start the move to help other people who were in need. An annual charity event that would be held by MDC was the idea.

Since it was their own first big event, they were a bit struggling to organize it. But with help from their family, friends, and some senior dancers, they succeeded to gather people and earned almost a million won. They donated big percentage of the money to organization that took in kids with intellectual disability and gave them extra attention and care.

In the moment, they were preparing for their second charity event. They practiced hard and they kept spreading the words about the event. They hoped they could get more audience than last year, so they could donate more to the chosen organizations.

**

6 months were passing by so fast while they were busy preparing for the charity event. The big day finally came. Kahi, Minzy, Sunye, Yunho, Jaebeom, even Jiyong were nervous. They tried to not show it to other but it still shown from their movement. Almost 6 years being together, they knew each other pretty well. They knew that each of them were nervous, but they tried to shake the nervous feeling off from themselves by having light conversation while warming up, Jaebeom and Kahi sometimes throwing jokes that made each other laugh.

10 minutes before the show started, they stood in circle while held each others’ hand, and they prayed for a moment. Finish with the pray, Jiyong gave them last words before they went on stage.

“We’ve practiced hard for today. I believe you guys will do well. Remember the purpose of this event. Remember the reason why we love dance.” Jiyong looked at each person then he smiled, “And as usual, don’t forget to have fun on stage.” the team nodded.

Jiyong stretched out his hand and the team followed him. They stacked their hands in the middle of the circle.

“No matter what, MDC,” Jiyong started, “keep moving!” the team yelled as the continuation.

No matter what would happen, they were ready. They would make the audience didn’t have regret by deciding to come to their charity event.

**

The place became really dark as a sign that the show had started. Then suddenly a spotlight showed and shone above Jiyong who stood on the center of the stage.

“Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the second annual charity event by MDC. My name is Kwon Jiyong.”

Cheer erupted from some part of the audience.

Jiyong smiled, “Thank you for willing to spend your precious time to come to this event. Me, with the rest of the MDC members, hope that you can enjoy our performance, especially for our special guests.” Jiyong looked at three front rows that were filled with disable children and teenagers who were companied with some caretakers.

“This event is dedicated for you guys.” Jiyoung smiled at the children and the teenagers then he bowed and the spotlight went off.

After seconds of silent, a spotlight shone again at the right side of the stage, stood there was Kahi. The music started and she showed her y routine. When she finished, the stage became dark once again, and in short moment the spotlight was being again. This time Yunho stood in the stage with Kahi. He stood behind her while his arm circled around her waist. The music started again and both of them did their y couple routine. Finished with their routine, the stage became dark again.

The spotlight suddenly shone at the left side of the stage. It was Sunye time to shine. She did her contemporary routine then, happened like before, the spotlight turned off when she had finished with her moves, and when it again, Jiyong was on stage, stood beside Sunye while holding her arm. Both of them did their couple contemporary routine, and it was back to darkness on stage when they finished.

Like how people had been able to predict, the spotlight again and shot above the center of the stage. Minzy stood on stage with her cool pose then when she heard the music start, she started to move her body and showed off her poppin’ and lockin’ ability. Like before, the spotlight gone and appeared again. Jaebeom stood in front of Minzy while her arms were around his waist and his chest, as if she didn’t want to let him walked away from her. Jaebeom peeled Minzy’s arms off from his body then took steps forward before he did his break dance moves. Cheers came from the audience when they saw Jaebeom’s moves. Jaebeom finished his movement by stood up and showed peace sign to the audience, and the stage went dark again.

Full lightning was being as different music was played. When the audience saw 6 of the MDC members on stage, danced in synch, they screamed and cheered louder than before. 6 of them hit the precise direction with their powerful moves, moved their hands and body in right flow as the music changed to slower beat. Jaebeom and Yunho showed their gymnastic moves, Kahi and Minzy showed their flexibility moves, while Sunye and Jiyong did some couple trick moves.

The show continued with 6 of them got their own solo stage. After the solo stage, the show moved to group dance. The girls showed their moves first with y and hip hop routine. They showed their flexibility and did some poppin’ and lockin’. Didn’t want to be defeated by the girls, the boys also showed their y side with y routine. In result, female audience screamed in delight. The boys also did their hip hop routine and did couple of flips.

Right after the boys finished their moves, the audience clapped their hands and the whole place went dark again. The fun part of the show had finished and it was time for the main part of the show.

**

The light went on again. It was set to be not too bright yet also not too dark. Sound of piano could be heard as the background music. Jaebeom stepped to the center of the stage while pushed a wheelchair. Sat on the wheelchair was Kahi. He moved the wheelchair so Kahi could face the audience and he stood behind it.

At the right timing with the piano, Kahi and Jaebeom raised their arm and stopped in the mid-air. Then they began to move in small detail. They moved their fingers, their lower arm, elbow, upper arm, and their shoulder. They did similar movements with the other arms. Sometimes, they also moved their neck and head, but they put more focus on their arms’ movement.

It was a mix of robotic and flowing movement. So there were moments when the movement flowed in the beginning, then they used robotic movement for the transition to the next movement. Other time, they changed to robotic movement then added some flowing movements for the movement’s transition.

It looked like a scene of a puppet with its master from audience point of view. But then when Kahi moved the wheelchair to space beside Jaebeom, the music suddenly changed into hip hop genre. Both of them moved energetically even though Kahi was only able to move half part of the body right then. They did an eye catching tutting movement which made the audience screamed in awe. Then Jaebeom walked further from Kahi while Kahi turned the wheelchair to Jaebeom’s way.

Kahi had slightly folded her body and stacked her palms in front of her calves when Jaebeom turned and faced her again. As the right beat came, Jaebeom ran to Kahi. When he had been close enough, he put his feet on Kahi’s palm. Kahi pushed Jaebeom’s feet upward when, at the same time, Jaebeom jumped. Jaebeom was up on the air, did a flip while passing Kahi’s head and landed perfectly behind the wheelchair. Jaebeom smirked and Kahi smiled at their success. When the stage went dark once more, the place became really noisy with the screaming and the clapping sound.

Again, the light like how it was before. The audience saw Sunye and Yunho stood on the stage. Their bodies were facing each other, their heads were lowered. However, audience could’ve seen that Yunho’s eyes were covered by black fabric. Sound of piano could be heard again, but it was different melody from Jaebeom and Kahi’s dance moment.

Sunye and Yunho lifted their head. Sunye moved closer to Yunho and touched his arm. Yunho moved his head a bit as the respond. She slid her hand down to Yunho’s hand and grasped it. She moved their hands a bit then Yunho suddenly pulled his hand away. Yunho started to make his own moves that were in synch with the melody, but slightly messy. When Yunho moved his right hand, Sunye raised and stretched out her left arm, she didn’t let Yunho’s hand moved pass her arm. Yunho moved his left hand and Sunye raised and stretched her right arm. Like before, she didn’t let Yunho’s movement passed her arm. Yunho then straightened both of his arms to the side. Sunye didn’t stop it, but she grabbed his arms and moved it to the exact direction.

Yunho kept moving and Sunye kept protecting his movement. It was as if Sunye became Yunho’s movement boundaries. Sunye made the movement stayed neat and precise. Yunho started to move around the stage and Sunye would act as a guard that would stop him when she knew he had moved too far.

Sunye took Yunho’s hand and pulled him gently to the center then she stood behind him. An R&B song was played and Sunye put her right hand on Yunho’s left shoulder. She did a body wave to the left and stepped out from her previous position. She did her routine while Yunho just stood on stage. Sunye took his hand and raised it. She prepared herself then spun her body toward Yunho. Right at the moment when Sunye had been in front of Yunho and had her hand on his shoulder, Yunho put her arms exactly around her waist in reflex.

After that, all of the movements seemed like magic. Yunho and Sunye did couple trick moves and did their routine together flawlessly. The audience cheered in amaze. Near the end of their song, Sunye pulled Yunho’s arm so that he faced her. Sunye smiled then tip toed, and kissed his cheek lightly. She circled her arms around his neck and hugged him. Yunho slowly put his arms around her waist and hugged her back while slightly lifted her up. Once again, loud cheering and clapping sounds could be heard when the lights were being turned off.

After a while, audience could see the stage clearly again. It was Jiyong and Minzy’s turn. They stood on the stage with Jiyong stood slightly in front of Minzy, in diagonal formation. Minzy had her ears covered with earmuffs.

A cute piano melody appeared. Jiyong tapped his shoes and Minzy had her eyes at Jiyong. When Jiyong raised his thumb, Minzy started her moves. Jiyong did simple moves with only his hand and Minzy kept doing her moves while her eyes didn’t move from Jiyong’s hand.

Jiyong kept leading Minzy to dance in right timing with the beat by using his hand movement. All of a sudden, Jiyong stopped his hand movement and Minzy also stopped her dance. The song changed into upbeat song and Jiyong did his routine. Minzy stood and only watched Jiyong for a while, after that she started to move with Jiyong.

At first, the audience confused why Jiyong and Minzy looked not in synch, but slowly they understood that they did cannon movement. They did the movement for a while, then Jiyong moved to stand beside Minzy and they did a routine together in synch. Cheers erupted again and people were clapping in supportive manner. Almost at the end, Jiyong moved a bit to the back and let Minzy did short solo stage, which she ended it with her split.

People clapped loudly and shouted supporting words. Jiyong approached Minzy, offered his hand which was accepted by Minzy then he helped her to get up. They bowed to the audience and walked out from the stage. The stage turned dark again and a big screen at the back of the stage was .

The screen showed some scenes from MDC practice moments. There was moment when Kahi struggled to use the wheelchair. She looked tired and tried to move the wheelchair around but it seemed stuck. There was moment when Minzy put in earplugs into her ears then she put tapes on her ears so that the earplugs stayed. She then put the earmuffs then raised her thumb to Sunye. Sunye screamed like a mad woman but Minzy didn’t flinch. Jaebeom also screamed to test Minzy’s hearing, but Minzy just laughed. Minzy looked at the camera and said, “It really works. It’s funny to see them open their mouth widely but I can’t hear any sound come out from them.”

There’s also moment when 5 of them kept poking Yunho, who had his eye covered in black fabric, and Yunho couldn’t guess who had been poked him. He just sat tiredly on the floor while saying, “Stop it, really, you immature people.” they laughed at Yunho’s helplessness. The screen also showed moment when Jiyong and Sunye failed to do their couple movement, moment when they just lied on the floor in tiredness, also some moments when they tried to make their routine perfect.

Then the screen became black and words appeared.

‘People might look at you and judge you that you won’t be able to do many things because of your disability.’

‘But have no fear! As long as you still have a brain inside your head and a heart that thumping inside your body, it means you still have chance to chase and reach your dream.’

‘You might face difficulty many times, but do not give up!’

‘Your body is important, but there are things that are more important than that.’

‘Passion.’, ‘Dream.’, ‘Love.’, ‘Happiness.’, ‘Hope.’, ‘Trust.’

‘Find them and treasure them.’

The screen changed to MDC practice moments again. It was moment when they had successfully done their routine in synch. It was also showed when Jiyong and Sunye had succeeded to make their couple trick moves, Kahi had been able to move her wheelchair around, Yunho was able to dance perfectly with his eyes covered, and Minzy could do her routine in the right timing with the music.

The recorded moments faded out and words appeared again.

‘Work hard.’, ‘Believe in yourself and your own strength.’

The screen turned dark and the stage’s lights . The audience stood up from their seat while clapping and cheering when they saw 6 of MDC members on stage. MDC members smiled, linked their hands, and bowed deeply to the audience.

They straightened their body but people hadn’t stopped clapping and cheering. Jiyong bowed again and the others followed. They straightened their body and they could see many happy expressions. Jaebeom grinned, Yunho and Jiyong smiled, Sunye wiped tear in her eyes and Kahi rubbed her back while smiling, Minzy smiled widely in happiness.

That night, Minzy, Kahi, Sunye, Jiyong, Jaebeom, and Yunho felt really proud of themselves. They felt so relieve and happy that the event was a big success. They really hoped the messages could reach the audience’s heart and mind, especially their special guests’ heart and mind.

They couldn’t wait for the next annual charity event. They wouldn’t mind the long and tiring months of practice. If that means that they could feel as proud and as happy as that night again, then they would endure it.

 

Extra note from the author:

First time I wanted to name the characters with these names:

Sayoon (comes from Sarang), Haengso (comes from Haengbok), Heerin (comes from Heemang), Kumi (comes from Kkum), Midae (comes from Mideum), Yeolyun (comes from Yeoljeong)

But then I changed it. And here is the rough draft for the characters:

사랑 love – Sayoon (Sunye) – the normal one + 믿음 trust – Midae (Yunho) – the blind one

행복 happiness – Haengso (Jay) – the mute one + 희망 hope – Heerin (Kahi) – the disabled one

열정 passion – Yeolyun (G-D) – leader + 꿈 dream – Kumi (Minzy) – the deaf one

 

The author of this story is NeeVix.

 

:)

Can't wait to get more entries!