Bodily Articulation through K-pop in Latin America. Audiovisual Narratives, Aesthetics, and Creative Reproduction

Abstract

Abstract K-pop cover dance is one of the key activities within Hayllu culture in Latin America. This paper examines the video performances of the ten finalist groups of the ‘Cover Dance bts’ contest, a K-pop dance competition performing the choreographies of exclusively bts songs, which was organized in 2021 by the Korean Cultural Center (Buenos Aires) for participants from Latin American countries. The research focuses on the corporal expressions in the videos that go beyond a mere reproduction of movements behind a camera, including aesthetic-creative qualities, and considers dance performances as a multisensory articulation, which are also socio-cultural narratives, and I interpret as urban corpographies. To achieve a broader understanding, I apply a specific methodology as I engage the videos based on a multi-sensory and embodied analysis, arguing that the meaning of dance goes beyond mere visual aspects.