K-Pop invades gleeful Monte Vista Elementary
With screams of unbridled adulation and joy, students at Monte Vista Elementary School welcomed the Minnesota K-Pop band MKDC for a pair of rousing performances Friday as part of an intercultural exchange sponsored by the Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles.
“We want our students, not just our [Korean dual-immersion] students to get a taste of the Korean culture,” said Monte Vista principal Suzanne Risse, who was already ecstatic after her campus earned a prestigious National Blue Ribbon honor, one of 30 statewide, on Thursday.
Risse added, “We want them to become familiar, whether that’s K-Pop modern or more traditional dances.”
Monte Vista, along with Mark Keppel Elementary, offers dual-immersion classes in which students are taught the Korean language and aspects of Korean heritage and culture.
MKDC’s visit on Friday was part of a larger coordinated effort that day between the Consul General and Glendale Unified as the district also hosted performances by the group at Hoover High School and Rosemont Middle School.
Maybe no district staff member was more instrumental in those efforts than teacher specialist Unis Choi, who said the event coincided with a belated Korean Thanksgiving or Chuseok, which took place Sept. 13.
“We worked in partnership with the Consul General’s office, and there’s a big celebration going on this weekend in Koreatown,” said Choi, referring to the Los Angeles Korean Festival being held through Sunday.
“This is a celebration of culture, language and dance with everybody, not just for the Korean population, but for non-Koreans, too,” she added.
No prodding was needed from Monte Vista students who sang, danced and giggled with delight as the five-member, all-woman MKDC, the defending two-time U.S. national champions, performed a medley of songs and dances.
If there was a decibel high point, it’s when MKDC informed the roughly 350 fourth- through sixth-graders that the group would perform a hit from the all-girl group Blackpink and invited about 15 students to dance on stage.
Youngsters did the dances called the Floss and Pop and Lock throughout MKDC’s next number, while their classmates clapped and hollered with glee.
“K-Pop is becoming very popular in the United States and the elementary students really listen to it,” said MKDC band manager Volcano. “They’re performing covers of already choreographed dances that a lot of people have seen on Instagram and Youtube.”
Wijin Park, director of the Los Angeles Korean Cultural Center, said there is a need for continued exchanges and dialogue between communities and cultures in Los Angeles and worldwide.
Park credited K-Pop’s success to its roots, which he said were a mix of Korean culture with an infusion of American rap and hip-hop music.
“Culture grows from one country to another, just like water flows,” Park said. “From that, a new type of culture is born.”
