Text: Li Tsz Wun, Chow Muk Yan
Photo: EchoDanceHK
“We feel surprised that we can compete in the semi-final. But what is more interesting, we even enter the final competition, which is held in Korea’’, said Yi-Hin Lee, a 19-year-old member of EchoDanceHK , HK-based dancing team covering different K-Pop songs, having 26 members in total.
The group joined the world’s largest scale K-Pop Cover Dance Competition in August 2014. This worldwide competition included the winners of semi-final round from all over the world. They could go to Korea to compete in the final round.
There were total 147 Hong Kong teams competing in the semi-final. ‘‘Many teams also did great jobs, I even thought some are better than us. So when the MC announced that we were the champion, we all burst into tears. We never thought we could represent Hong Kong to go to Korea.” The nine girls of EchoDanceHK were sent to Korea for free for nine days to attend the final round.
During the nine-day trip, Hin thought the most memorable part was they could go to an entertainment company and dance in front of AOA – a popular Korean girl group. “The organiser brings that surprising event to us.” Hin also thanked the Korean staffs for taking care of them during the trip. Besides, they also got many new experiences, such as taking photos in a professional studio, dancing flashmob with other countries’ teams in the Gwanghwamun – a famous Korea tourist spot.
They were the ninth team to perform in the competition. Because of the big difference of temperature of day and night in Korea, the stage was filled with fog, causing the stage floor to be extremely slippery. “One of our members slipped over, we were very worried about whether this would affect our performance,” she said. Fortunately, they won a popularity prize and came to success finally.
On the road to success, there are no shortcuts. Once Hin was attacked by many Internet users criticizing that she did not suit the dance because of her body shape and poor dancing skill. Fortunately, she owned the optimistic belief to face those negative comments and tried her utmost to practise more. “At last, more and more people started concerning me and this undoubtedly gave me a recognition,” says Hin.
