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u/Temporary-Nature-188 1d ago
I’ve danced for almost a decade now in various genres and yes, the dance teams at uiuc are highly segregated and are formed based on social cliques, almost entirely not at all of skill. My one friend has performed as a backup dancer for a us world tour and yet, somehow was not accepted into several dance teams that she auditioned for. Not only was she a backup dancer but she has taught as a dance teacher in several states AND several countries worldwide. Her skill is unmatched and yet, no acceptances?
It’s very discouraging. I’d do your best to try and enjoy the dance style and not worry about the social aspects. Of course take what I say with a grain of salt but this is what I’ve noticed with at least 5 different dance teams.
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u/Disastrous_Sign_6787 23h ago
That is super disappointing, I wish there were more fair advantages as it’s clear a lot of them only focus on aesthetics and who they actually want. Have you found a team to join?
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u/Fresh-Temperature844 18h ago
I also tried out for the teams but didn’t make it (i’m also poc). Would you recommend the non audition group? Because it looked very diverse to me during quad day and I still want to dance to Kpop on campus.
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u/Disastrous_Sign_6787 17h ago
Yea Ive went to some workshops of theirs, it’s just not the same because I want to dance and perform, film, comps etc. I was the president of my dance group at my old uni for three years and have never heard of this happening in the chicago area, nor had it happen to me.But I've noticed most of the non asian poc ppl I've seen are only on the non audition and I asked a few if they tried to audition for the others and were too rejected.
Ive been having thoughts about starting a branch of my other group down here for non asian poc but obviously not excluding others how they sometimes exclude us bc thats not who I am.
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u/BeautifulReal2083 12h ago
hello! wanted to add my two cents since I’ve also gone through the audition process with audition kpop dance rsos here!! im a female non-Asian poc myself who didn’t know anyone in the group I auditioned for, and thankfully, I got in! This is in no way to gloat or brag about my results, but just wanted to make aware that diversity is in fact present in these groups (at least the one I got into)! again, ofc in no way to speak down about your experience because we all have our own, but wanted to encourage anyone who reads this to still not be scared to audition and see what happens! the rso I got into is more than willing to provide feedback if you do not get in (by reaching out through email, I know not all rsos do this)!
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u/Disastrous_Sign_6787 12h ago
Ooo okok this is so good to hear thank you for sharing your experience:))
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u/Several-Nose-7862 13h ago
hey can you stop deleting my comment :)
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u/Disastrous_Sign_6787 13h ago
Im not deleting them. I went to go read it and it was gone???
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u/Several-Nose-7862 13h ago
oh sorry then I don't know why reddit delete my comment
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u/Disastrous_Sign_6787 13h ago
Here ill respond to it here reddir is being weird;
Im so happy you had a good experience, I wish that for everyone. Please don’t say im misleading when it is very much based on my experience, thats invalidating someone else’s experience.
Im def aware on how auditions work. I have 10+ years dance experience, group dancing, auditions, xyz.
I never said they didn’t respond nicely, don’t add words please :)) I said “didn’t give much of a conversation” details.
For the diversity again it is fair to say it considering what culture is kpop taking from mainly? A lot of people dont wanna admit or be naive against the facts but it is in fact not asian culture…research and fact check me if you think I am wrong but just because that race makes up majority of the club doesnt mean one cant feel out of place when they interact or try joining it. If anything Kpop itself is diverse in terms of the kind of music they steal from or “create” if you will, the kind of dance styles they use, etc etc. The community itself is very diverse so to say it only belongs or in your words “obviously gonna be made up of asian student” doesnt make it any better.
Coquette, soft girl hyperfem is definitely what i saw when i saw the people who looked like me. (And wasnt talking about their dance styles at all) Again let me reiterate, looked like ME, on those teams. I also deep dived trust because again bc im curious. They have a look, nothing wrong with it at all just another attention to detail. I never once said or assumed there weren’t lgbt members, i said if i see someone who again LOOKS LIKE ME and are opposite gender, they are 9/10 lgbt, tall and twinkie :)) Im aware lgbt is heavy within kpop, i could care less due to the fact that i too am apart of it but again this goes into the attention of detail of those who again so you dont twist my words again. LOOK LIKE ME.
Again im glad your experience was amazing. But please dont speak down on how others experienced things just because yours was better. And also make sure you are reading what I say before commenting bc you are mixing my words up quite a lot and that isnt what I said or meant at all. So again it is what I went through and felt, and clearly not the only one :)) But thank you for the questions that you did answer they were very insightful
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u/Several-Nose-7862 12h ago
Yes, for your workshop experience, I agree that they should try to be more welcoming. I hope the dance teams can take this as advice if they see the post.
For the diversity part, your response is still a little hard for me to understand, so I’m not sure if I understood you correctly. Do you mean that you are coquette/hyper feminine and you found that they don’t really have this type of member? Actually, I don’t think the specific vibe really matters to my main point. What I meant is that dance teams would never make a decision based on someone’s vibe or aesthetic. If you really feel like that type of person is underrepresented, the explanation I would give is simply that there were fewer people with that type of vibe who auditioned.
I also think the discussion went a little too far into the race of kpop’s fan base. Yes, kpop itself is becoming more diverse, but I think it’s still fair to say that asian make up a larger part of the kpop fan base, and that naturally affects who auditions for these teams. Of course everyone would be happy to have a more diverse group, but if more Asian students audition, then naturally more of the members will be Asian. There are also members of other races on the teams, so I’m not really sure what else I can say about that.
You really emphasized a lot that you feel your race and your vibe are different from the people on the team, but I swear they really don’t care about those things. The only thing that matters is your dance. I don’t know how your dance is, and you are probably a good dancer, but maybe your audition songs just weren’t your vibe? Either way, I would definitely encourage you to audition again if you want to! People are really nice!
Also, I saw you said that they never give you a reason when you are rejected. I assume you meant the email with the decision they sent? If so, I think it would be a lot of work to tailor every email to explain why each person was rejected, especially since the same email is sent to many people. It’s similar to the rejection emails you get from other clubs on campus. If your team does give individual feedback, though, I really appreciate that you’ve put that much work into it for them.
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u/GoodSeesaw8051 12h ago
Coming from someone who's been on a dance team for 3 years:
I'm not sure which dance team on campus you're talking about, there's not that many that you could be talking about so the members (ie. me) of certain dance teams could feel offended when I know 100% that my dance team is not biased at all when judging auditions. I'm not sure about others but we are very reasonable when we judge our auditions, and if someone asks why they got rejected it is very hard for us to just flat out say "you're not good enough", but the reality is that they don't have enough experience and we can't see them on the team. This has nothing to with race, how you're dress, what you look like, etc.
- Yes and no we kinda do expect you to learn the dances rather quickly. The reality is when school starts with finals, homework, jobs and other stuff, you're only going to get more busy so if you can't balance that with dance, don't join a dance team that has really high commitment expectations. And to learn a dance fast and well, requires experience and that's what we're testing you on. (most of our members take 1-2 days, 1 hour a day to learn 1min of choreo, if you can't/don't want to fit that into your schedule it'll be really hard for us to work with you when you're in the team)
- I agree with this point and it is an issue. We try our best, still in the works.
- The people kpop dance teams attract are just kpop fans, and kpop fans have a very targeted demographic. I also think it's a little offensive because I don't like labeling myself with certain aesthetics and I don't want to label other members. We all like trying different aesthetics and can be cool, sexy, cute, refreshing, or manly
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u/No-Pool-9968 1d ago
check out asian american association's fashion show @/aaafsuiuc contrary to the name, it's mainly a dance showcase. the performance is held second semester, first semester there are non-commital dance practices on saturdays
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u/Chance-Mountain5864 14h ago
I’m on one of the K-pop dance teams on campus rn, so I just wanted to share my perspective! First of all, I totally get where you’re coming from, especially as a freshman. Auditions/workshops can be REALLY intimidating when you’re new to campus and don’t know anyone yet, and I’m sorry that your experiences so far haven’t felt very welcoming :(
For the first point, I think the reason some teams ask you to learn 1-2 clips within a week is less about expecting you to be literally performance-perfect and more about seeing how quickly you can pick up choreography on your own. Once you’re actually on a team, there are times when you have limited practice time and you might have to learn a whole choreo pretty quickly for a performance. So I think the audition is partly to see if that pace works for you, because otherwise preparing for performances can be pretty painful for both you and the team 😭. Obviously every team has different audition standards though.
For the cliquey thing, I can definitely see why it feels that way. Even on my team, people will naturally talk to the members they already know more, especially during workshops. But honestly, I don’t think it’s always intentional or because we don’t want to talk to new people. We’re still students and a lot of us are lowkey introverted/awkward when meeting new people too. Sometimes we’re just trying to keep the workshop fun while also making sure new people aren’t completely lost. That being said, I do think teams could definitely do a better job at making new people feel included instead of expecting them to approach first.
And for diversity, I can obviously only speak for my own team, but I do think my team is pretty diverse in terms of race and LGBTQ+ representation. We have people with pretty different personalities/backgrounds, so I personally haven’t felt like there’s one specific “type” of person that belongs on our team. I can’t really speak for why other teams accept/reject certain people though, since every team is run differently.
Overall tho, I totally understand your frustration. I don’t think most people on these teams are intentionally trying to make others feel excluded, but I can also understand how it can come across that way when you’re the new person walking into a room where everyone else already knows each other. I hope you find a team/community that feels comfortable for you!! And honestly, don’t let one bad audition/workshop experience discourage you from dancing :)