*SCAPE Dance Dance Hallyu Dialogue Session: Life as a K-Pop Idol

     “Always wanted to train and debut under a South Korean entertainment company?”

On 17 October 2020, *SCAPEdance hosted a dialogue session with Tasha Low, Ferlyn Wong, and Alfred Sng to share about their individual experiences as former K-Pop idols and trainees in the South Korean entertainment industry. A total of 63 participants attended the Zoom webinar.

During the session, Tasha and Ferlyn shared their journey in Korea from being a trainee under Alpha Entertainment to their debut in a four-member girl group, SKarf. They also shared their experience in survival audition programmes, such as We are Young and Idol School.

“Sometimes, we would practise up to 18 hours a day until we perfected the item. Days before our stage performances, we would practice till the wee hours of the night,” said Tasha.

We took the opportunity to ask the panellists if they would go through the experience again, should they be given another chance. Ferlyn said that she would and added: “It (the experience) is something money cannot buy. South Korea is the only country with this unique training system, that you would not be able to find anywhere else. It really helped me to upgrade my skills to another level. The trainee and idol experience have created who we (panellists) are today, and we have definitely gained a lot from it.”

During the session, Alfred also shared about the struggles he faced throughout his journey as a trainee and contestant of a reality TV programme. “Even though it is something we enjoy doing constantly, at times, it can get mentally stressful. One can get tired and that was the case for me. What got me going? I guess it was the adrenaline rush that I got whenever I performed on stage. After all, we were all doing this because we enjoyed performing. The silver lining was when I learnt to value myself. Self-confidence, self-value, and love is something that is very important to me as a person. I am very proud of my personal growth,” said Alfred.

On the wider topic of how Singapore could adopt South Korea’s approach in producing a successful entertainment industry, Alfred said: “I think it would be great to introduce the training system. We would be able to identify and cultivate many young talents here in Singapore. However, the system is very intensive, and it requires the participants and community to be rather accepting and open-minded.”

During the dialogue session, we took the opportunity to pose some questions to the audience. As a result, we gathered some information regarding their interests in the Korean culture and entertainment industry.

Here are some results from the dialogue session:

From the polling results, we identified that 35% of the audience members would attend a week-long bootcamp that allows them to experience what their favourite K-Pop idols go through.

With regard to this, Tasha shared that she thought the percentage of interest would be higher. She added that the experience, be it short or long, would help with one’s growth as an individual and grant them a new perspective of the Korean entertainment industry at the same time.

Beneath the limelight and glamour lies a rigorous schedule, long hours of training, and a group of passionate individuals who yearn to achieve their breakthrough in the cut-throat world of entertainment.

*SCAPEdance would like to once again take this opportunity to thank our panellists Tasha Low, Ferlyn Wong, and Alfred Sng, moderator Chanel Roberts, as well as the participants who attended the Dance Dance Hallyu Dialogue Session: Life as a K-Pop Idol.

To find out more about our virtual K-Pop festival, Dance Dance Hallyu: https://www.scape.sg/event/dance-dance-hallyu/

To find out more about ongoing dance events: https://www.scape.sg/whats-on/?category=dance 

Enjoyed what you have read? Follow us on Instagram and Telegram for the latest programmes and updates on *SCAPE!