Chinatown Square Plaza turns into a dance floor for youth festival
The K-pop Random Dance event was part of the first “Youth of Chinatown,” a three-day festival that aims to connect young people across different cultures.
Dozens of K-pop and hip-hop fans turned Chinatown Square Plaza into a dance floor Saturday as they grooved to the beats of BTS, BLACKPINK, Psy, Nelly Furtado, Missy Elliott and other K-pop and hip-hop artists.
For the K-pop portion, songs were played at random and people who knew the song’s choreography jumped into a circle, moving in sync even though many had never danced together before.
Sarah Kuwahara, 16, who traveled for the event from Hoffman Estates, was one of those fans who knew the moves to almost all songs played. She said she first got into K-pop by BLACKPINK’s choreography on her own in quarantine. Now she frequently joins random dance events to perform with fellow fans across Chicago.
The K-pop Random Dance event was part of the first “Youth of Chinatown,” a three-day festival that features hip-hop and K-pop performances that aims to connect people across different cultures and create a community space, according to organizer Felicia Jia.
“As we think about how Chinatown is developing... it is a hub of course for food, and people love coming here for boba, but I think Youth of Chinatown really came about because we needed a community space where, you know, especially Asian American youth and youth of other cultures, can come experience Chinatown just aside from these businesses,” Jia said. “I think hip-hop and K-pop are two big components of youth culture that bring people together, and what better way to use the Chinatown space than to make two dance parties, right?”
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