One of South Korea's best known Hip Hop Breakdance groups visits the popular tourist destination of Newquay in Cornwall. Locals and holidaymakers were delighted to witness an impromptu performance of world-class dance. Hip-hop is today extremely popular in South Korea after being introduced by American GI servicemen stationed there. When hip-hop-obsessed American soldiers showed their Korean counterparts how to land headspins and windmills at US military bases in the 1980s, they probably didn’t anticipate breakdancing’s eventual explosion in the country.
Upon reaching Korea’s shores, it was Korean-American hip-hop promoter John Jay Chon who, having handed out VHS tapes of tutorials and competitions to Seoul’s underground dance and club scenes, was widely credited for igniting the boom.
Breakdancing entered the Korean mainstream in the 1990s through K-pop trailblazers Seo Taiji & Boys’ mesmeric music videos, at odds with the country’s conservative culture.
As the first generation of K-pop – which similarly incorporated US hip-hop conventions – took over South Korea on its way to global domination, the country’s tourism board began investing millions of dollars into breakdancing competitions, likely hoping it would lead to a similar K-wave.
The baggy jeans, boomboxes and tattoos that had once captured pop culture in the United States – breakdancing even featured at President Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in 1985 – experienced a similar lull in mainstream Korea by the mid-2010s.
But it never went away – and is now in a resurgence that will take Korean b-boys and b-girls to the Paris Olympics very shortly. This Crew in addition to being supreme dancers and indeed musicians are also committed Christians and using their skill to promote their faith. Two senior members of the group have been involved and dancing for over twenty years.